quinara | Recent Entries

Behold! A chronologically ordered index of my fic.

( Fandoms Represented: Buffyverse, Dollhouse, FFVIII, FFIX, Historical RPF, Greek/Roman Mythology, Shakespeare, The Great British Bake Off, Red Dwarf, Harry Potter, St. Trinian's, Torchwood. )

and some vids!

( Fandoms Represented: Buffyverse, London 2012 Opening Ceremony, FFVIII, FFIX, RSC Hamlet (RSC 2009 w/David Tennant). )

Crossposts: http://quinara.livejournal.com/116048.html

So I've been busy and failing to be online and not receiving comments on some posts and not paying attention and nobody told me, ultimately, that someone on

seasonal_spuffy made art based on a passage from a fic I'd written years ago, To Apprehend Air. Namely the amazingly talented

boiiko!!!

http://seasonal-spuffy.livejournal.com/542235.html

http://seasonal-spuffy.livejournal.com/542235.html

http://seasonal-spuffy.livejournal.com/542235.html

Go and see!! As I say on it: I love the colours and how stark it is, as well as the way that Buffy is looking at Spike's head and Spike is looking at his hands, as though Spike can't recognise himself while Buffy can't do anything but see who he is. It's all just perfect.

I feel like such a cad for not seeing this when it was posted nearly a week ago. :( I fail.

Crossposts: http://quinara.livejournal.com/249805.html

Long time no see, oh journal of mine... The ballet of another couple of months' term is now nearly over, so I'm almost feeling in control of things again. As it is, I think I always find the adjustment to winter a difficult one, getting out of time the moment the clocks go back and then taking a few weeks to get used to waking up in the dark. I bought a clock radio last week, which I think has helped my addiction to the snooze button, and has an added bonus of making me feel like a proper grown up: this week it was actually very straightforward to wake up and listen to the delightful strains of Absolute 80s (one of the not-dozens of digital stations the radio knows - and funnily enough the only decade of Absolute Radio that it can get). The breakfast show is quite entertaining, some of the time, and it's always upbeat.

My flat décor is very nearly finished, and I'm hoping, either if I get around to it or forget about the fact I should really have an electrician in, that by my one-year anniversary of moving in (late next January), I will feel like there's nothing pressing that still needs to be done, and I can finally start saving some money for a holiday vel sim! And it's been long enough at least that I'm starting to feel connected to my furniture, as it is no longer 'new' but reminds me of the time when I bought it, in the spring, which seems ages ago given how things have progressed and always seem to progress in my job. I also have a lot more houseplants, so how can things go wrong? There's a squat little palm tree by my bookcase that's getting on for a month old and hasn't died yet, so here's hoping it can actually survive in my West-facing living room.

In more exciting news, though, I have also written a fic for

seasonal_spuffy. It's sort of set in the comics, but only half-arsedly, and I couldn't think of a summary, so that is rubbish. It's basically my spin on the plotline of 'Spike may be killing people in his dreams; Buffy goes into his brain to figure stuff out'. They get sidetracked, and a lot of the focus is on stuff pre-series or during the TV run. If you remember Somnambulist from AtS season 1 and Spiral from BtVS s5 you can probably merrily imagine the plot as I evoke it. It's about Spuffy in this post-series way, but also about Spike and Nikki Wood.

There are also tarot cards! You can guess which three I selected on purpose, but anything else was drawn properly and then I went to town having a read. I wouldn't necessarily say it's the only way to read them, but I'm very keen on the idea that tarot meanings are very much about their context in the spread, so... Anyway: here's the fic, 11-12k words, in five chapters, PG-13...

The Page of Wands

Crossposts: http://quinara.livejournal.com/248994.html

So, the OTW has found itself in its semi-annual clusterfuck. Or, not really, but it's currently having its autumnal donation drive which seems to be interacting in an odd way with its election process (namely, no one who becomes a member during the current drive will be able to vote). The more interesting point is that despite now asking fandom for $175,000, the organisation does not seem to have realised that at some point it might need to produce an annual budget. It has raised $90,000 in less than a week (ETA: and $10,000 TODAY), but has no agreed aims about how it intends to spend the money. Servers, one assumes from communications, but as the donation page says that the money is going to the OTW as a whole, it could be spent on anything: it could be decided that it has to be spent on something in the next six months, even if there is no current need. People point this out, but there is not really any decent response provided.

Certain commentators (though not part of the organisation's running staff) seem to be of the impression that this is not important, and if people don't trust the OTW they should just not get involved. Actual staff seem to be under the impression that a full budget would require the disclosure of bank account details or some nonsense I can't quite make sense of. I made a comment on AO3 and a different comment on tumblr - but what I thought it was worth journalling about is how this affects all of us who produce fannish stuff, including fic and comments on fic. Because as far as the OTW is marketing this donation drive as being about the AO3, we are all assets of the OTW. In financial terms, we are what allow the organisation to make a case to bring in more money, whether we are full members or not. The organisation by constitution is non-profit and makes no money, but as its members, staff and board derive satisfaction from its existence, all of us that contribute to the AO3's success contribute to that satisfaction. And I think it should be embarrassing for the organisation to have its finances in such disorder that it cannot satisfy its assets/asset-providers, let alone its donors.

I don't really know what the point of this post is, but I wanted to document this clusterfuckery in something that is more substantial than a tumblr post. Also make a note that assets of an organisation should not be treated as its cash cows without any respect for the labour which makes fandom a viably organisable thing in the first place. OK, the sysadmins are volunteers, but so are the writers and reviewers. Even if fic were banned from everywhere on the interwebs besides the AO3 we would go on, and any charitable institution disrespects its constituents at its peril.

Crossposts: http://quinara.livejournal.com/248819.html

/Young Ones

The Fag Ends Anniversary Party is still going, people. I have a few things I will try and edit up (/embellish???) to bring over at some point, but I was occupied rather a lot this week by the saga of my desire to make a video, specifically for the Depeche Mode B-Side Fools, because

bogwitch prompted it (obviously), and I have been annoyed about not having made a video for ages. Long story short, when I replaced my laptop with a PC a few years ago, the ancient version of Windows Movie Maker stopped working with any file types apart from .wmv, and it was basically impossible to get any footage into it (and so far my attempts to try and find other software to make videos has been a complete disaster; for some reason I love WMM). However! After Windows 10 made me lose everything, and I had to find the CyberLink DVD player through a random menu, I discovered there was some CyberLink movie-making software on my computer, which was useless for everything APART FROM turning ripped .mkv DVD files into high quality .wmv files. And so I was saved!!

Of course, I then decided I wanted to make a Angel S5 Spuffy reunion vid, because I have wanted to make an AU vid for ages. So there was this whole business with downloading some dodgy version of The Grudge dubbed into Hindi and playing about with that and then deciding to invest a whole £1.27 in a DVD to make everything look nice, so then I had to wait for that to turn up. But now it's here!!! It is rather necessary to just go with the idea that LA and Tokyo basically look the same.

Do be careful if you have photosensitive epilepsy, as I would always say with any of my vids. As Hyperdub used to say about Burial tracks before you bought them, also, the glitches are part of the effect. ;)

A few more shots of courage and...

[BtVS/AtS + Depeche Mode, with some guest footage]
[HD on Vimeo // my other vids]

Crossposts: http://quinara.livejournal.com/248068.html

Aaaaaaah, it was so good today. Possibly because Shabnam is my fave (and Stacey - and Kush, and possibly Martin after this for being so daft - and Tamwar always, and Mick), but the set pieces!!! But you should all watch this weirdly cropped YouTube upload. And Tuesday's, because it sets up the day of the stag do when this is all set.

Enjoy the camp and the running around the Square!! You will not regret it. Or maybe, but never mind.

Tuesday:

"" (Watch on YouTube)

Today!

"" (Watch on YouTube)

Yes, these will probably keep disappearing...

Crossposts: http://quinara.livejournal.com/248022.html

So, a while ago, in the spirit of Cheeky Nando's and a rewatch of Band Candy, I became convinced that there needed to be a fic in which Spike, Ethan Rayne and Mr. Trick went to Nando's. I started writing this fic, but, as usual, it developed a premise for A Plot and I had to leave it. However, looking at it in the cold light of this Saturday morning, I don't think it will ever become the novel it wishes to be, except maybe in a series of chunks, so I am posting it to have it posted!

At the End of the Night

by Quinara

Spike. Ethan. Mr Trick. Nando's. A story of when Buffy out-cheeked them all.

--

The portal zapped closed and Buffy rolled onto hard, cold stone. She looked up when she found her feet, but above her already was a demon; it was a like a giant wasp, maybe a hornet, flying at her sting-first.

The thing was bigger than her. Ready for anything, though, now she’d landed in this hell dimension, Buffy leapt and swung her scythe.

CLANNNNNNG!

“Ow; holy crap!” It was only as the shock reverberated up her arms that Buffy realised the wasp was a statue, made of metal.

What the…?

Once she’d fallen, back on her toes, Buffy looked up at the thing again. Squinting in the nighttime, she realised it wasn’t even moving. There was just a glow on it; shadows.

It wasn’t buzzing either – the noise was coming from behind it. Cheery, rabbley, not so threatening…

Huh.

She was standing outside a McDonalds. A real live one-step-up from the DMP McDonalds, advertising something called a McChicken Premiere.

As she moved towards it, a group of men fell out of the brown front doors, laughing amongst themselves. Buffy paused. One of them was wearing a white Adidas cap; another a blue Fred Perry polo shirt. Some of them had sodas; fries… They were all wearing sports trousers, which was strange.

The head of the group, in a lime green polo shirt, was waving a flyer around. It was for a nightclub – Vodka Revolution – and Buffy could just make out the address…

Looking around, Buffy realised she was really there. She was in Hell. There was a shopping mall behind her. Waterstones. The Gap. She was in a grimy British high street. She was, apparently, in Watford.

( ... )

Crossposts: http://quinara.livejournal.com/247558.html

Yes, it's a post that's not about me! Now, I am a very bad lapsed gen reader, through the fault of my own Spuffyism and some sort of years-old border conflict or something or too many fics that at one time seemed to decide it was OK to have Spike and Buffy post S5 in the same locale and never have a conversation and/or forget everything that had ever happened.

Anyway, such are my issues - but! More fool me, because you should all go and read this fic:

Green Smoke and Empty Mirrors by

apprenticebard

I saw familiar faces in the kudos, because I am behind the times, but I am reccing it anyway!! It's a long Spike and Dawn story, set just at the end of Angel S5, when Dawn gets wind of what's going down and Andrew knows Spike's there, so they head off to figure stuff out. Amazing cameos from Angel and Illyria; Giles is kinder than I've ever managed to write him post S7 (and so lovely for it); all these ace Spike-Dawn flashbacks which give you a Dawn who is cleverer and more cynical and appropriately younger than often she gets portrayed. And obviously Buffy would have got in the way, but she's off and unreachable somewhere, so the fic makes sense and gets to not be about Spuffy without any chinks in the characterisation. And Spike is all Spike-like. It's great, basically. And did I mention there were flashbacks and a dragon and Illyria?

Crossposts: http://quinara.livejournal.com/247404.html

OK, I am an hour behind schedule, but the fic is updated!!!! There are a couple of larger chunks and some smaller ones replacing bits. Otherwise things are generally shunted around a bit, so I would recommend starting from chapter eleven and seeing what you think if you are interested in seeing it anew... *bites fingernails* I slightly like the new bits more than the old stuff now, but I think I'm just used to it all. What do you think, internet????

Now to see if the chapter management on AO3 is a kindly or terrifying beast...

*boom boom adrenaline pumping music* Here's hoping the summer subsides into ease tomorrow. The, er, the fic is finished?

Crossposts: http://quinara.livejournal.com/247066.html

OK, people, one day I will shut the hell up about my fic, but as much I want to act like the coolest cucumber in the universe and live out that Romantic myth where the story comes through me to you in this perfectly realised form, it has also become clear that chatting to people after the final chapter that there were things that feel neglected, and this rings true with what I wanted from the fic and why the final part was originally delayed anyway (some emergency surgery I did wasn't quite reconstructive enough!!). But! The final stitches are a-go-go and should be half done tonight, and depending how productive I am tomorrow things should be posted in some magically subtle way tomorrow evening, because I have a plan to bastardise my post about the Iliad into a conveniently dove-tailed extra chapter when things are shuffled backwards and forwards. And then I will produce a carefully managed spoiler-tagged explanation of where there are new things, so anyone who has read may find themselves appropriately redirected. Of course, anyone who's finished and is happy, it doesn't matter!!! But now I know what I know I am aware that if I don't fix this I will greatly dislike myself in six months time and won't be able to get back into the fic.

So, I suppose what I am saying to you is that if you haven't started (and would like to start), you may like to wait a couple of days. However, things will only be altered from Chapter 12 onwards, so there's actually a lot of words to read if you would like to begin. The, er, myth of flawless publication will return at the end of the week. I dunno what the hell I'm going to say to people on AO3.

And I'm being crap with comments too now. All virtue will return, I promise!!!! ~~And then I'll focus solely on the other book I'm supposed I write this summer!~~

Crossposts: http://quinara.livejournal.com/246909.html

I missed all the meming before, but I am amused to see this productivity meme going around. Everyone else seems to be getting these nice things, but I...

You Are a Controller
When it comes to productivity, you run a tight ship... even if you're working entirely by yourself. You are big on planning and schedules. When you start to write things down, it's amazing how much you are able to squeeze in. You are highly determined and quite stubborn. You prefer to stick to your original plan unless there is a reason to change. You finish what you've started, and you finish a lot more than most people. You don't give up on your goals.

You Are a Controller

When it comes to productivity, you run a tight ship... even if you're working entirely by yourself.
You are big on planning and schedules. When you start to write things down, it's amazing how much you are able to squeeze in.

You are highly determined and quite stubborn. You prefer to stick to your original plan unless there is a reason to change.
You finish what you've started, and you finish a lot more than most people. You don't give up on your goals.

What's Your Productivity Style?

In many ways it is a fair point. Especially the second paragraph, although I am also quite lazy.

In other news, I feel guilty about filling up everyone's pages with stuff about my fic, but look what

bogwitch made for it (under the cut)!!!!!!!

( It's a banner... )

Isn't it lovely????

Crossposts: http://quinara.livejournal.com/246715.html

Hoorayyyyy!!

[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.

[survival I]

( survival II (epilogue) )

.

[end]

Crossposts: http://quinara.livejournal.com/246304.html

I'm sorry for this mega spamming, but the end is nigh! This, by failures of later editing, is not actually the very last chapter, but it is also sort of the end, because the next chapter is quite short and more like a coda. It will be done!! Thanks to everyone who's taking a look at this...

Oh, and, er, NB the headings again... Also, Spike's mind has a little wander at some point, to a place that happens to be Henry Cary's 1814 translation of Dante's Paradiso, canto XXVIII. Um - shall we go with it?

[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.

[bodies V]

( PART FIVE (survival) )

.

[survival II (epilogue)]

Crossposts: http://quinara.livejournal.com/246040.html

[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.

[bodies V]

( bodies VI )

.

[PART FIVE (survival)]

Crossposts: http://quinara.livejournal.com/245978.html

[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.

[bodies IV]

( bodies V )

.

[bodies VI]

Crossposts: http://quinara.livejournal.com/245586.html

[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.

[bodies III]

( bodies IV )

.

[bodies V]

Crossposts: http://quinara.livejournal.com/245373.html

[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.

[bodies II]

( bodies III )

Crossposts: http://quinara.livejournal.com/244997.html

[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.

[bodies I]

( bodies II )

.

[bodies III]

Crossposts: http://quinara.livejournal.com/244947.html

So, this used to be a post about the Iliad, but it isn't anymore! I have stolen it in order to make the new improved final (long) third of this fic come to life. Hopefully you will be reading this for the first time and wondering what the heck I'm on about, but otherwise apologies for making a mess.

To steal a note from the first time around: Thanks everyone for reading so far anyway, and I hope you like where we end up... And we're sort of back in squiggly time again, because it made sense that way. It seems like a cheat to explain it (obvs I believe you should never explain things in notes!), but if you are stuck, think less snapping around in time and two timelines which both flow forwards, marked by their headings. For this part anyway. But whatever. Onwards!

[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.

[PART THREE (intermezzo)]

( PART FOUR (bodies) )

.

[bodies II]

Crossposts: http://quinara.livejournal.com/244652.html

This part ritually abuses things from all over the place, as you will see, including scripts by David Fury, Drew Goddard, Doug Petrie, the Joss himself, Jane Espenson and Stephen DeKnight, as well as all the wonderful people who've ever put transcripts up on Buffyworld.com. The formatting has not been fun...

And - she says after putting it together - I don't know what to say, people, but my footnotes don't work! I'll see if I can get them to work on AO3, but it seems the DW at least strips id attributes out of tags or something, so I can't make links around the page. I've left the links in to show you what I mean, though. I've got the footnotes to work!!!! Who knew cut tags could be so fun to abuse?

[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 IV]

( PART THREE (intermezzo) )

.

[PART FOUR (bodies)]

Crossposts: http://quinara.livejournal.com/244259.html

Where sheep chew cud. Or something.

At the End of the Night

by Quinara

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

by Quinara

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

by Quinara

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

by Quinara

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

by Quinara

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

by Quinara

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

by Quinara

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

by Quinara

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

by Quinara

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

by Quinara

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