The Farmstead

[start of fic and notes]

'I love you' is a thing you say to people who are dying

by Quinara

Season 7. Buffy/Spike. Some Watchers survived, because sometimes people do.

[breakfasts III]

( breakfasts IV )

.

[PART THREE (intermezzo)]

[start of fic and notes]

'I love you' is a thing you say to people who are dying

by Quinara

Season 7. Buffy/Spike. Some Watchers survived, because sometimes people do.

[breakfasts I]

( breakfasts II )

.

[breakfasts III]

And this is the last one for today...

[start of fic and notes]

'I love you' is a thing you say to people who are dying

by Quinara

Season 7. Buffy/Spike. Some Watchers survived, because sometimes people do.

[free association IV]

( free association V )

.

[PART TWO (breakfasts)]

[start of fic and notes]

'I love you' is a thing you say to people who are dying

by Quinara

Season 7. Buffy/Spike. Some Watchers survived, because sometimes people do.

[free association II]

( free association III )

.

[free association IV]

Hello everyone! I have the S7 fic I've been promising...!! Not all of it today, as it comes in at around 90k words, but the first five chapters. These all work together as Part One of the fic, so are more of a connected whole than a set of individual chapters. There are five parts to the fic in total (this is the longest), and in an early plan I didn't want to separate anything into chapters at all. Obviously, I then realised you can't get 30k words on a single journal entry even if I wanted to, but what I'm posting today should basically fit together. (She says, dearly hoping the last-minute edits will let it all go up today.)

I won't say much more, but this beginning is also a bit of a slow burn, which is why I worry you might find it very dull if you take each chapter as its own thing... But anyway, what's happening: the fic is an AU from The Killer in Me, but only a strong AU by the end of Get It Done. We chop around a bit as things get going, but if you're worried you don't know what's happening, assume it's been like the show until it seems like otherwise. I'm very grateful to bogwitch for reading it all over and for everyone's encouragement!!! I like the fic and I hope you do to... It's fairly angsty, but hopefully not too harrowing as a romance. There is plenty of sex and violence, but, as you might expect from me, it's mostly chatting! :P

The rest should be posted in the next couple of weeks. ETA 15/08/15 - and look - bogwitch made me this beautiful banner!!!!!!!!!!!!

'I love you' is a thing you say to people who are dying

by Quinara

Season 7. Buffy/Spike. Some Watchers survived, because sometimes people do.



( PART ONE (free association) )

.

[free association II]

People of the internet, oh, this makes me sad.

The Web We Have to Save

An Iranian blogger after six years in prison talks about the internet he remembers and the internet he's found on coming out.

But the Stream, mobile applications, and moving images: They all show a departure from a books-internet toward a television-internet. We seem to have gone from a non-linear mode of communication — nodes and networks and links — toward a linear one, with centralization and hierarchies.

The web was not envisioned as a form of television when it was invented. But, like it or not, it is rapidly resembling TV: linear, passive, programmed and inward-looking.

When I log on to Facebook, my personal television starts. All I need to do is to scroll: New profile pictures by friends, short bits of opinion on current affairs, links to new stories with short captions, advertising, and of course self-playing videos. I occasionally click on like or share button, read peoples’ comments or leave one, or open an article. But I remain inside Facebook, and it continues to broadcast what I might like. This is not the web I knew when I went to jail. This is not the future of the web. This future is television.

The thing is, I can see it even in the way that this post is just an advert for this blog with a link. In 2008 I would never have posted a naked link like the one above, but I almost just did right now. It seems quaint to bother writing the tags to mask to give it a title, even. (ETA: And heck, even did it wrong the first time.) Oh, I am sad. No one writes with punctuation anymore, or capitals. incl. me

Because I can't really be arsed to dig into it, but apparently Joss has been chased off Twitter by The Feminists, who it seems were no longer to be bought off by Joss being Joss and writing retrograde claptrap but nonetheless having the women punch people while doing it. And then there's a side narrative about the Marvel execs ruined his creative vision, which may or may not be related. I know many of us are Joss fans but at some point I actually started hating him, so I'm finding myself unbelieeeeeeeeeeeeevably amused!!!!!!!!!! Has the world woken up to his poor little baby auteur games? Have mainstream standards for women's plots actually managed to shift in the last twenty years? Is this the start of the revolution? Or will the fanboys just take this as another reason to act like dicks?

Not even drunk. But this is hilarious. No, I haven't seen the Avengers and don't plan to... Spoil me however!

ETA: This is quite interesting, and I think raises an important point about the sheer volume of messages about Avengers AoU to Joss - it makes you question if whether this was really a hounding that can be compared to that orchestrated against much less major figures. It also seems like the Whedon line on Twitter is that it's part of his job, and when the job is done he generally leaves it alone. Not trying to excuse anybody's behaviour, but I'm starting to see this slightly as another pitched battle between the stans and the haters, with the casus belli (as usual!) a rather ambiguous event...

ETA2: Fab conversation people; I will be back this evening. Just going to add that the man has spoken. From which we learn that people shouldn't blame the critics, for one will always be cursed for one's art and daring to have a political point of view, even if those militant feminists do actually generally bring other feminists down because if Joss says he's a feminist then he will always be helping the cause no matter what. It's backhanded graciousness for everyone!

So, I am working on my seasonal_spuffy fic. On the one hand, excepting half of one relatively short scene, the draft is complete and pushing 27,000 words. On the other hand, I literally figured out what the story is "about" as I was writing the very final paragraph. Which means the task now lies ahead of me of nipping and tucking an otherwise relatively entertaining but generally straightforward plot into thematic significance, argh. Too many times this has happened to me, but it is a lesson in just writing for the sake of writing, because eventually I always do figure out the point of a story, whether it's at the wire or not, and I think those ones are sometimes more effective than the fics where I know what I'm on about as I go along. Or maybe not. Will see.

I also have to go into work this afternoon so that I can at least pretend everything is ready for me to abandon an incredibly busy start of term for four days and swan off to Denmark for a conference. The timing, it is not good, but I've never been to Denmark, it's a chance to meet up with some people and present on something new; and most things work over email anyway... Tralala. ... :/

ETA: ARGH; I lied. This fic is not sodding finished. There will have to be more. It will have to be written next weekend. Well, never mind.

(I could do proper Latin, but seriously; how wank would that be?)

So, I had grand plans about what I was going to write in this post. As far as I can tell, several people that I like and respect in fandom (both on my flist and off) have been betrayed deeply in recent days. And, for the most part, I thought it was best that I didn't get involved, because I don't know the person whose integrity has been brought into question and surely I could only ever make things worse. But at the same time, how can anyone be neutral in situations like this? Moreover, as I went through iterations of what I might say, the more I realised that the purpose of my post (this post) would always be straightforward. Because, when I think back on all the times I've been betrayed by friends (which, if you look at my friendship choices from the age of five, has happened a lot), I realise that one of the things that made it most difficult was that every time it made me isolated, in my own head or else within the group that were immediately affected. And while online I am something of a jaded has-been, in RL I have been fucked over, crying in public, angry and confused.

And you might all think I'm wrong. You might be reading this, thinking 'fuck off, Quin; my friend didn't betray me'. And honestly I don't mind. The jaded fandomite that I am would say that is a pattern which has been played many times before in the last 10+ years. And I don't like this friend of yours. But that's not really important. The important thing, which I feel I must say in this public post, which the wine urges me on to say (I had a do at work), is please, don't let this define your fandom experience. Or else close it down and cut you off from everywhere else. The rest of us randomers will still be here; you are still with us and part of us and we will keep chatting to you about random stuff. People like me will be crap at it, partly because we've been burnt enough times to keep to ourselves and the people we know well already, but we will be here. This isn't the end, and we are friends/friends-of-friends of you for you.

I mean, I speak for myself here, but I feel like others will agree...?

Anyway, this may be pointless. But this is a post. Because I'm crap at keeping things implicit, and I do really think you've been manipulated. I might also be wrong, and if you believe I am then I want you to know that I think we still have a friendship which is viable.

(And that goes for the lot of you, also, who have no idea what the fuck I'm on about. You are the great internet, wot iz my friends, no matter the differences of opinions that might otherwise split us apart.)

Urgh... This is really dire, isn't it? Still. I'm clicking the button anyway.

So ages ago I gave up on my Rough Trade New Tracks of the Week subscription, because it was only producing crap and I never had time to go through what came in anyway. However, that does mean that there are some gems hidden on my iPod in the depths.

Because loooook! (/liiiiiiiisten!) Bat for Lashes finally found someone to make her a decent backing track! I knew I recognised that voice; and this is so much better than any of her singles. TOY are shit on their own as well; it's a match made in heaven: where's the album?