swatkat

I was re-reading Batgirl #24, and god, I hope someday I'm able to revisit this series without getting a little teary-eyed because this was, for about the course of the fifteen months or so when I followed the title every month, my #1 pick-me-up, the one thing that never failed to cheer me up. I do not know how Stephanie Brown replaced Barbara Gordon as the Batgirl of my heart, except that I now think of the DCnU and realise that Barbara's Robin is now Damian, and a part of my heart just shrivels up and dies.

It is a difficult time to be a Bat-fan, in some ways—Snyder's Batman might be on fire, but for those of us who had fallen in love with a particular set of characters and relationships in a status quo that was never going to last (I realise now, reboot or no), and who are, perhaps, less used to reboots/cancellations/resurrections the way long-term comics fans undoubtedly are, the Batverse doesn't feel like our Batverse anymore. Barbara's Robin is Damian and Damian's Batman is Bruce and Stephanie and Cassandra are god knows where, and that is very, very painful. Equally painful is the knowledge the Black Canary and Oracle, as I knew them, were probably never friends that way, or that Huntress, as I knew her, no longer exists. It's only the end if you want it to be notwithstanding, fandom is hard.

It's also a difficult time to be a Barbara fan, in some ways—because I am, Barbara's girl through and through, and even the loss of Oracle won't change that, even if I despair over how much they have erased along with it. Apart from Wonder Woman, Barbara is the only female character of the DCU to have any sort of legacy, and it isn't coincidental that both Diana and Barbara's legacy's have been severely affected in the DCnU—with the erasure of Donna Troy, with the seeming disappearance of Diana's supporting cast (even STRIFE—yes, I refer to her in ALLCAPS now—cannot make up for the loss of Phillipus or Artemis), with the erasure/benching of all the three women who wore the Batgirl suit after Barbara, with the re-writing of the history of the Birds of Prey (from what we've seen of it).

It was, therefore, a bit of a surprise when I finally picked up the new Birds of Prey and found myself enjoying it tremendously: ( spoilers till BoP #5 )

I will also admit to shamelessly shipping Dinah/Evelyn. The subtext is certainly there, and while I was earlier held back by my Babs/Dinah OTPness, I've now come to accept the fact that Barbara and Dinah as I knew them don't exist anymore. (This is not to say I won't ship Babs and Dinah once more once we get to know these characters a little better, note.)

Wonder Woman, of course, has been an utter joy—despite my various misgivings, I've enjoyed the title thoroughly. ( spoilers for Wonder Woman #5 )

PS: DIANA'S GUN SHOOTS LOVE BULLETS, YOUR ARGUMENTS ARE INVALID.

I'm not sure I'm going to finish reading the Huntress mini right now. I thought I was reading about my Huntress, and I wasn't—I feel a little cheated to be honest. This will, of course, change if the new book is good and I grow to like Helena Wayne, but right now I need some time to mourn the Huntress I loved.

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netgirl_y2k has written fabulous DVD commentaries of Like a Fish Needs a Bicycle (Morgana/many female characters) and Walk Softly and Carry a Large Stick (Cara/Kahlan), with wonderful insights into the characters that you should run to read right now. Or read the stories first, if you haven't already.

High D'Haran Love Poetry by nike_ravus (Legend of the Seeker, Berdine/Raina): This is not a pairing I normally read, because I don't care about the bookverse and I don't know the characters at all, but the writer introduces them as 'their TV-show version incarnations. These are the girls who would hang out with our Cara and (sometimes) put up with her shit', which is really all I needed to know. At 20K words, it's a sharp, intriguing - and at times disconcerting - look at the world of the Mord'Sith, and a consideration of the eternal problem: "How do Mord'Sith fall in love? No really, how?" Read this right now, and go shower your love upon the author so that she writes more stories in this fandom.

Last night I stayed up to watch the Champions League final. Having no stake in either team - unlike a lot of other people in my FB feed (so much cursing) - I opted to root for the more aesthetically pleasing side, which, of course, worked out very well for me. Messi is pretty and has magic feet. (They were also clearly the better side.)

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A little while ago, I finally picked up my copy of A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammad Hanif, after owning it for months but never quite getting around to reading it (Wolf Hall will have to wait, the Thomases were very confusing). Halfway through the book I told zorana84, 'This is the slashiest book I've read of late.'

'Oh, is it?' she said. 'Sounds interesting.'

( Do I have your attention? )

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While we're on the topic of recs, I also have a couple more - fan fiction, this time. My Opinions on Glee can be summed up by 'I like Kurt', 'some of the songs are nice', and 'Santana is the best'; my viewing is, at best, sporadic. That does not explain why I wasted days reading Five Stages by thememoriesfire, and its two epic sequels, The Lights That Stop Me and Blind With Casualties.

Five Stages is about Santana - to quote the summary, "Santana deals with the coming out process; set after 2x16, "Original Song", and abandoning canon forever after that" - and it is MAGNIFICENT. It's so easy for stories in this vein to become preachy issuefic, but this is just perfect - raw, messed-up and glorious.

Apart from the three Santana-POV stories, this 'verse also has interludes featuring the other characters, and they're all great (although my favourite is Quinn).

If you read fic in this fandom at all, chances are you have already read it - but in case you haven't, go now. The power of Santana's ~feelings compels you.

YULETIDE AND SECRET SLASHA AND OH MY. Why do I have to go out now dammit?

But meanwhile.

Still Life With Lipstick, Andy/Miranda, The Devil Wears Prada. Post-movie. Andy thinks she misses Runway. It's *wonderfully* written. Can you hear me squee? *SQUEE*

Rome, 16:42, Buffy/Faith, BtVS. Buffy and Faith in Rome. There is no bad there. None.

Purls Before Pie, Emerson, Pushing Daisies. Emerson knits. He does not crotchet. OMG.

Sleep, sleep, go away,
Come again another day.

   SOME COFFEE WOULD BE NICE.

 Or alcohol! But that would make me sleepier, so no. No alcohol now.

                              Mmm coffee.

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Meanwhile, last night, instead of doing what I was supposed to do, I plotted a Foreman/Cuddy fic in my head where Foreman wants to know if Cuddy has ever been a man (there was a foreman_fest prompt like that). I didn't actually get around to the Foreman/Cuddy part, but it was fun. Yes, I know I have a fic to finish and the cuddy_fest deadline is technically over. Shut up.

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Speaking of cuddy_fest: jaybee65 wrote Pirateverse fic! PIRATE QUEEN CUDDY. GOVERNOR'S DAUGHTER CAMERON.

If there's one thing Governor Cameron has taught his daughter Allison to do, it's to hold her head high. No matter what the circumstances.

She holds it high now, defiant and dignified, as she balances on the edge of the pitching ship's deck. She does her best to ignore the wretched man waving the cutlass around in her face, although she does manage to notice that he clutches a cane to steady himself on his wooden leg. If she kicks it out from under him, he'll topple right off the side of the deck and plunge into the sea. It's tempting, except that alas, she's far too kind to do such a thing. Even a ruffian pirate with a scraggly growth of beard and a suspicious scent of rum on his breath deserves compassion, after all. He probably grew up in poverty, she imagines, his mother an alcoholic barmaid and his father a brutish laborer. He turned to a life of crime after his leg was mangled by a carriage as he begged as a child on the streets, or no, maybe in the war, fighting valiantly but ultimately succumbing to gangrene because of the buckshot he took to save the life of his commanding officer. Yes, she likes that version better. A poor, forgotten veteran, fallen on hard times. So tragic, really!

The Pirate Queen and the Governor's Daughter WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Go read!

+ this body of wonder and uncertainty by quasiradiant, Cuddy/Cameron. I never saw it when the author first posted it - but this? Is so gorgeous. First season Cuddy/Cameron. The author takes time to build it up, and the product is lovely - I love the hesitation and the tension and the Cuddy (oh, the Cuddy!). Go and read now!

+ warmer than warm by zauberer_sirin, House/Cuddy. I've been meaning to point you all to this - it's House and Cuddy, trying their hand at a relationship, and not doing very well with it. It's a great, satisfying read, and I do love her style. Also, great cameo by Wilson, who as far as I'm concerned, has the best scene in the entire fic.

Education is disturbing. Good professors are even more so. Nothing, absolutely nothing is sacred in this world.

But that said, RL has been good to me. The past two weeks have been a blur - late nights, traveling, occasionally not-boring conferences, really bad poetry sessions (which made me write a poem in retaliation. and i never write poetry. it's a one time thing), more late nights, freezing (although it will be spring soon), and occasional angsting over which course to choose when there's so much to do. And if that isn't enough, I got fic written for me!

I asked ijemanja for House/Cuddy, and she wrote me this: Past Time, which is an absolutely amazing futurefic. I worship everything she writes, and this is sad and moody and strangely hopeful. Just beautiful. Read it now.

And because I haven't pointed you to this in the past (which was very wrong on my part), the fic queenzulu wrote for my prompt: Five Times Cuddy Didn't Sleep With House, and it's companion fic I Saw Her At A Reception. It's House/Cuddy UST at it's best. At it's BEST - funny and snarky and so beautifully them. Words cannot express my love for these stories. Please read them now, and play the philosopher Jagger in the background.

+ Underappreciated Cuddy/Cameron fic here: Oversight by recrudescence. Great characterisations, hot sex. Pls to go and appreciate now, because the fandom desperately needs good f/f, and Cuddyfic in general.

+ Look at Lisa Edelstein OMG! *is dead of hot*

+ I spent two and half hours in class today discussing gay subtext in plays.

There was a very surreal moment when the prof, trying to get a rather taciturn girl to speak, pointed dramatically towards me and said: 'No, tell me what would be *your* happy ending of the play (Look Back in Anger). I know *her* (meaning, me) happy ending would be Alison and Helena going off together and leaving happily ever after.' I almost blurted, 'How did you know?', because yes, I *have* been slashing them together (and Jimmy/Cliff, who are so very gay. but I do heart Jimmy/Helena as well, and Jimmy/Alison/Helena) in my mind ever since I first read the play.

I think I'm in heaven.

yuletide is up, as is Secret Slasha. *squee*

Another Drink Seinfeld fic. Absolutely, utterly perfect Seinfeld fic. *dies laughing*

It's entirely possible this is the worst party Elaine has ever been to. Any party where the bulk of the evening is spent talking to George is by definition a bad party. You never know who you might pick up at a party, but it's hard to imagine anyone being worse than George

Mischief. Mayhem. Soap. I'm glad glad glad that LFN qualifies for Yuletide, because this? Is perfect.

Birkoff was in the middle of the last stage of Final Fantasy 7, utterly kicking the ass of the boss, when his intercom beeped. Briefly, he considered throwing the controller at it and then, thinking better of that one, he grabbed a rolled up pair of dirty socks and threw those instead. He was getting sick of trying to explain to Madeline how he'd wrecked yet another controller anyway and he suspected she knew exactly how controllers two, four, five, and seven had died.

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I was going through the Secret Slasha entries, thinking 'There's *Buffy/Dawn* (I still have some squicks left. This is one of them), and no Buffy/Faith?' I was wrong, of course, because there is one - and what a story it is!

There is No Revolution without Boots and Song Post-NFA Buffy/Faith. Words cannot express how much I love this story - the narration, the pitch-perfect Buffy voice, the characterisations... I wish there was a way to send feedback right now. *happy sigh*

Angel's gone, Spike's gone, and Buffy and Faith are the only ones really mourning. That's what Buffy tells herself. At least for Angel, anyway. Buffy and Andrew are the only ones really mourning Spike. That would totally bum Spike out. Maybe. She's losing touch with how either of them would react.


*goes off to read all the Wonderfalls stories*

ETA:

Innocent as a Rose The Sound of Music. Liesl, far away from home.

Even in Austria, the Von Trapps were always more Austrian than anyone else. Now, in America, it seems they are to be Austrian to earn their bread. But it is more than that: Father seems to have decided that it is his family, and his family alone, that will keep Austria alive long after Anschlüss has closed the country to the outside world.

Nice Things There should be more Mahandra/Aaron in the world.

Maybe there had been times, back in high school, that had involved Mahandra imagining being admitted to Jaye's hospital room to find her sitting up in a smock with a baby in her arms, but those had been inspired mostly by overexposure to after-school specials and in part by watching Jaye leave pool parties to sneak into the cabana with Francis Holyoke. And Brad Troy. And Danny Succonetti.

ETA 2:

Been Put Back the Right Way Round One Tree Hill, Brooke/Peyton. Brooke and Peyton are on a guy break. Lovely, lovely best friends turning into something more story.

Naturally, she told Peyton first, when they met in the parking lot at school. "I've decided, P. Sawyer. No boy is good enough for me. At least for a while, anyway. I'm washing my hands of it. I'm hot, I'm great, I'm Brooke, I'm right about this. I may be right about everything."

Every Good Girl Does Fine Oh. Oh. Peanuts fic! Marcie/Patty in highschool fic! This is just so *amazing*. There should be more fic like this for those of us who can't go and see Eliza Dushku and Ian Somerhalder in Dog Sees God. *sniff*

"But these are our times -- our glory days! This year, Marcie, we could bat a thousand if we wanted."

Marcie squints behind her glasses. She says, "Well, I'm excited, sir."

For what it's worth, the sun seems to shine brighter than yesterday.

And now, off to bed.

Sawyer rec for catsma:In the Wild by mayatawi Set early in the series, and *very* dark, with potentially upsetting themes (but you're not fazed by that, yes?). Read it just for the Sawyer POV.

And a meme, because msgenevieve tagged me. *g*

THE RULES:
List five songs that you currently love. It doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether they have words, or even if they're any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now.

Post these instructions, the artists, and the songs in your blog.

Then tag five other Livejournal friends to see what they're listening to.

1. Woh lamhe - Jal
2. Raat hamaari toh - Parineeta
3. I just want you to know - Backstreet Boys
4. Kajra Re - Bunty aur Babli
5. Dhire jalna - Paheli

Anyone who sees this and likes this - consider yourself tagged. *g*