Title: How Things Began (2/23)
Rating: T
Author: jlrpuck
Pairing: Ruby Quarles, Elias McCoy
Disclaimer: The characters contained in this story are the products of my imagination; as such, I retain all right to and ownership of them.
Summary: Welcome to the story of how Elias McCoy and Ruby Quarles met, and grew to became the characters we know.
Notes: Two things I realized I forgot in my not-short notes from Monday: First, I wanted to thank justlook3 for making my fantastic Ruby and Elias icon (it’s one of three she did for me, bless her). I love it—I love all of them—and I just wanted to thank her again. Second, I realized I never really put a time frame on this story. Roughly speaking, I’ve been operating off the idea that it starts ten years before “And So Things Go.”

Thank you to ginamak for acting as a sympathetic listener and excellent sounding board as I frantically penned this tale (and for enabling my Elias McCoy love), and for providing the first crack at beta of it when it was done. Huge thanks, as well, to earlgreytea68 and chicklet73 for their beta work, especially given how utterly insane their lives have been this past month.

( How Things Began, Chapter 2 )

I'm watching the season finale of So You Think You Can Dance (my dirty little reality TV secret), and I just have to say... is it just me, or does Adam Lambert look like he's bringing back the 80s Duran Duran/Culture Club look? In fact, the WHOLE BAND does. And what the hell's that mess of black crap on his shoulder?

Oh God. The 80s are back. Does this mean my students are going to be wearing the Wall O' Bangs soon?

We went out to get our Christmas tree this afternoon, accompanied by the same music that we have listened to on the same venture for many years running. From a cassette tape to CD to mp3 files playing from my iPod, it still sounds the same. It's funny, the things that end up lasting. It was nearly dark by the time we found our tree, simply because by the time people were home from school and Hannah had delivered her papers, it was late afternoon already. The tree, now that it has been set up, is not precisely perfect, but it is nice and will look lovely with all the ornaments on it, I'm sure. Our ornament collection is very motley looking, all inside an old steamer trunk, but our trees always look so beautiful. Each ornament has a meaning and a memory or three, and I much prefer that to a uniform decorating scheme. Although the tree may not look perfect, it is certainly interesting. When we set it up we discovered that it had a small, dead wasp nest in it. It also apparently had a small, very alive mouse in it. Our only inside cat, Zhiva, cornered it but Eli had compassion on it and rescued the little blighter. It was released up in the field above our house, much to the displeasure of Zhiva. She spent the next half hour inspecting the tree and surrounding area just in case the mouse had any friends with it. Hannah and Eli said the mouse's name was Freddy and it was a Christmas mouse; Dad said the mouse's name was Vittles and it was Spike's dinner (Spike is one of our outside cats); Sophie said the mouse's name was Reepicheep, but Hannah rightly pointed out that if it was, then it would have kicked all our asses by now.

Yesterday we went Christmas shopping in State College. We didn't get back until 11:10, but I nearly finished all my Christmas shopping, so yay. Also, they have a bunch of wonderful Alice In Wonderland stuff in Hot Topic that Hannah and I were nearly ecstatic over. If I get any money for Christmas which I can spend on myself...heh heh. Also, the two people working there were wonderfully nice and conversational. I recognized the guy from the last time I was at that store, although I'm sure he had no memory of me. Regardless, we chit-chatted about lots of things. I love when people are like that, I love when you can connect with people and feel as though you've made a friend, when you remember someone, although you may not even know their name.

Random: Apparently, Papa Roach and Shinedown covered U2's 'Beautiful Day' in concert a few days ago. I saw a video of it on YouTube that Jerry Horton posted on Twitter. The video was bad quality, of course, but I can only imagine that it must have been amazing in real life. I love when bands I like connect in one way or other, especially when it's in a way one might not expect. Speaking of music, I finally got the first Christmas song up at six_i_notes, in case anyone is interested and hasn't heard it yet.

Tomorrow I have to bake nut rolls for the church bake sale. I also really need to get over to the mall and pick my stuff up from Bath & Body Works and grab the last two Christmas presents I haven't got yet. And the post office, to send out packages. The aforementioned tree is now decorated, it is snowing outside and Mannheim Steamroller is playing over the stereo. It's all very Christmasy. I am curled up on our new love seat (an actual couch type thing, instead of an uncomfortable futon, hurrah) and feeling fairly warm and cozy. I should probably go to bed, since I accidentally slept in until eleven this morning, and I don't like when I do that. Ten o'clock is one thing, but later than that, I feel like I've slept most of the day away and it's not at all conducive to achieving anything at all. I think I'll sit down here a bit longer though, brooding perhaps. I could write a long thing about all the complicated things that make me broody, but I shan't, because it's bad enough brooding without dwelling on it more. My life is hot and cold, you know what I mean? It's great in some ways and sucky in others, but then, whose isn't? I just wish it would stay the same for a day or two. But no, I said I wouldn't dwell! Anyways. Pretty tree, peaceful snow, beautiful music. We'll stick with the nice things we do have, instead of thinking about the ones we don't, hmm?

-SXM, Sarah Meholick, Esq. Bane of Shadows

Only two more days until I get two weeks away from my life-eating job. Whee! I may actually be able to write again!

Is there anyone else out there who's so tired of the "OMG David is leaving!!!1!!11eleventy" hype that you just don't care any more? Granted, I've been busy, but I don't honestly have much interest in watching Waters of Mars, let alone the Xmas one, whatever it's called. (I don't actually know. EoT, I've seen it abbreviated, but no idea what it stands for.)

Maybe it's just sheer exhaustion, but somehow, the magic has gone. I changed my phone desktop picture from David to a map of the world, I changed my work desktop picture from David to a pic of the Houses of Parliament I took in 2007, and I have no interest in Doctor Who or his new show, Rex-whatever. (Though I am definitely looking forward to getting a copy of Hamlet. Woot!)

Sigh. This doesn't really make me happy, honestly. I loved being in fandom, I loved the excitement. I hope it's just a matter of being too tired to deal with it, because I'd hate to lose the fun of fandom. :(

In better news, the premise I wrote up for my proposed script for my screenwriting class has been reviewed and given the Stamp of Approval. I need to figure out a few more things--like What Happens If the Bad Guy Succeeds?, and Will There Be Romance?, but I'm feeling pretty solid about it, all told. :) Only one more of those classes before the holidays, too, and since there's no school next week, I don't have to worry about being up so late Monday night. Yay for sleeping in on Tuesdays!

In other happy news, my student teacher is starting to really get her feet under her. Which is good, because 'long about MLK day (around Jan 20), she's going to take over from me for ten weeks. TEN WEEKS. No Lissa in the classroom for TEN WEEKS! No idea what they're going to have me doing, but at least I won't have to deal with the little darlings for a while. In fact, for TEN WHOLE WEEKS! Squee! :)

I think the past two days have been very nice, for small, accumulative reasons. I think my average school day is balanced fairly well between negativity and general positiveness, and for this week, I think all the little good things have successfully canceled out any annoyances. There are still people messing up my posters with their lack of artisticness and twits forcing me to change lines during a theatrical presentation by handing me props when I'm not supposed to have them.... Ah yes, and music directors not being in the chorus room when I'm supposed to be auditioning for Dynamics! But Morgan and I had a fine time hanging out in there waiting for him. The band hallway, with the adjoining music rooms and auditorium, is most probably the pleasantest location in the entire school. It's nothing impressive of course, since I do attend Sunnydale High (with less vampires), but coming from the noise of the cafeteria and main hallways, it is incredibly quite and serene, with no sounds save the muffled, tinkling sound of a piano and someone practicing a clarinet. There is a mirror along the entire wall of the hallway which is perfect for preening when heading in and out of chorus. I think I should skip lunch all the time and just sit down there and do my homework or write music or something. And I find it heartening that I haven't found a place to hide, because I don't need one, but a place to just be. I think school should have a homey aspect; some parts of it at least, where no one is telling you where to go and what to do. That's what I've been working on, I think, making it a place where I can like being. I might as well, since I spend so much time there. I'm determined not to let it be a place that I can't wait to get out of, and so far, it's getting easier for it not to become that way.
And on that positive note, guess what I got today. My very first official detention. I almost look forward to it, a) because I won't get home in time to do my papers, so someone else will have to do them, b) I can actually get some work done, and c) I can stop by the auditorium and catch the second day of auditions for the musical. My detention is on Tuesday, and I will have auditioned on Monday, so I can just slip by and watch, and maybe read some more scenes. As for being in trouble, it's only because I skipped swim class, wherein I learn how to not drown in 4 ft. of water while wearing a life jacket, to study my geometry in the library. So I'm not a little delinquent, just a silly person who forgot to go and lie to the nurse and get out of class legitimately. But oh well, it had to happen some time. Trust me to skip the only class that routinely takes attendance. And am I a bad person for bursting out laughing once I got out of the principle's office? Also I got to miss half of French class, an added bonus.

We got a Christmas tree this afternoon, the finding of which would have been more enjoyable if it hadn't been so wretchedly cold. When we put it up in the house, the cat started chasing something that turned out to be a dear little mouse that had hitchhiked via the tree all the way home. Eli rescued it, as he had gloves on, and we carried it outside (after much screaming and scurrying about by both us and the mouse). Eli and I felt a mite guilty, leaving it out, since it was a Christmas mouse, but we supposed it could take care of itself, since animals tend to do that.

Aha, I must go and decorate the Christmas tree, and probably print out sheet music for my audition next week (the number we're singing is sung by a Carol Haney dressed in a black suit, spats and a bowler ::squirms:: so you see I am very excited!)

So, I was going to do this prompt-based fic meme, but it was disastrous. Then, I decided to keep working on it. A few hours later, here are the results.

Sorry that I can't remember who I grabbed this from. : /


1. Write down the names of 10 characters.
2. Write a fic of fifteen words or less (or whatever length damn well pleases you) for every prompt, using the characters determined by the numbers. Do NOT read the prompts before you do step 1.


1. Nobody Owens (Graveyard Book)
2. Captain Jack Harkness (Doctor Who, Torchwood)
3. Captain James Kirk (Star Trek)
4. Spock (Star Trek)
5. Elphaba (Wicked, the book.)
6. Donna Noble (Doctor Who)
7. Eddard Stark (A Song of Ice and Fire)
8. Shadow Moon (American Gods)
9. Fitz (Cracker)
10. Spider Jerusalem (Transmetropolitan)

( 11 prompts )

Oddly enough, I had actually planned to Study today -- I snatched up a whole pile of books about books and reading and storytelling at the library, including Reading Lolita in Tehran, which is gorgeous and heartbreaking, and I meant to read them (in a skimming sort of way) and dash down notes and try to draft a narrower focus. But as fate would have it I spent my entire afternoon running from Goodwill to Goodwill with Mum and my sisters, as all of the local Goodwills had an epic sale today, and the items which had been in the store the longest were only three cents. Mum's recently started an eBay business selling nice clothes she bought very cheaply at Goodwill -- we get a lot of things that are new with tags!, and in nice brands like Talbot's and Banana Republic and Christopher & Banks, and while most of the ones that stay around long enough to make it to the cheap racks are very unattractive, they also sell very well. So: major sale, everything in the stores discounted. Quite nifty, really, although I had not realised that this would take until dark...

I did, however, snatch up some very spiffing things for not much money at all, such as a pair of vintage hats (one has a birdcage veil!); a mustard yellow trenchcoat; several sweaters, which I need terribly as I am always frigid in the winter, and for whatever reason have trouble finding sweaters and cardigans that fit properly (and one is a crimson cardigan that is very Remus Lupiny: I am well pleased); a t-shirt printed with a vintage advertisement for Good Housekeeping magazine; a black polka-dotted vintage dress with a tiered ruffle skirt; a Lord & Taylor lace slip; an excellent-condition hardcover of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and several other books for my PaperBackSwap*...

Not really keen on going shopping again for a bit, though.

*Anyone else here on PaperBackSwap? Perhaps we have books that can be traded!

Have also been busy making cookies with burningstarsxe and having merry conversations with her and goddessreason, some of which might turn into journal meta later on. We wanted to make rj_anderson's gingerbread cookie recipe, but we had no molasses. I am very eager to try it at some point anyway. Was later busy dying hair back to its accustomed shade of dark rusty red -- accustomed as of the last six months or so: why yes, I've stuck with the same hair colour for three or four dye jobs now! Wondrous strange! -- and trying to write my Yuletide fic and occasionally being distracted by the Awesome Magical Girls With Eyeliner story, which is steadily getting wider in its scope. There are Nia and Margaid, who are totally not thinly veiled Gwen and Morgana proxies (except ones who confide in each other when worried, oh dear, show, stop it -- but Nia is stubborn and loving and idealistically practical, and Margaid is elegant and fierce), and Alun, who is probably a very young king because I am awfully fond of that trope, and Isuelt of the First Kingdom who comes down from the mountain. When characters happen, and when names happen to them, it is generally held that my fate is sealed (for which read: I AM DOOMED).

I would also like to point out that I am well aware that Awesome Magical Girls sounds like the title of a profoundly wacky manga.

Tonight, I am vacillating between watching Angel, re-reading Robin McKinley's Chalice (I love this book for the mere fact that it is high fantasy, but domestic high fantasy, in which the stakes are personally high, but it isn't the same old thing with Dark Lords and Only You Can Save The Entire Universe. Also for the mere fact that it is Robin McKinley.), trying to record 'What Child Is This?' as Nancy Elizabeth might sing it (with fewer cool instruments, alas) and failing as my voice is mysteriously stiff, and brainstorming The Essay and the rest of my Yuletide fic simultaneously. My brain feels very crowded. Oh dear.

Title: How Things Began (1/23)
Rating: T
Author: jlrpuck
Pairing: Ruby Quarles, Elias McCoy
Disclaimer: The characters contained in this story are the products of my imagination; as such, I retain all right to and ownership of them.
Summary: Welcome to the story of how Elias McCoy and Ruby Quarles met, and grew to became the characters we know.
Notes: Well. First thing, I feel I should warn you that the next 23 chapters of fic I post will not contain Peter, Rose, Lucy, Jackie, the Doctor, or a single soul from Doctor Who and/or Blackpool. Fair warning :)

That said, this tale was something I’d been wanting to write for ages, but which I wasn’t able to thanks to a singular lack of inspiration. That little issue was cleared up the last weekend of October, when ginamak said something somewhere that triggered the idea I’d needed for so long. The rest? Well, let’s just say that I had 50,000 words of this story written by the end of the first week of November, thereby making for a very successful NaNoWriMo (a relief, after failing to come anywhere close to meeting it last year).

Thank you to ginamak for acting as a sympathetic listener and excellent sounding board as I frantically penned this tale (as well as for enabling my Elias McCoy love), and for providing the first crack at beta of it when it was done. Huge thanks, as well, to earlgreytea68 and chicklet73 for their beta work, especially given how utterly insane their lives have been this past month.

( How Things Began, Chapter 1 )

by A. Valenzuela

Los Angeles, CA Citizens staged a protest today outside campuses around the nation. As finals week(s) draw near for colleges and universities, the safety conscious citizens of the United States are gathering again. This year, however, they have begun a more unified process. Cynthia Safety, of Orange County, began convincing those she knew to start a group designed to battle the threat to the roads that she, and others, felt was growing.

"These [colleges] are crazy," Safety told reporters this morning. "They don't care about what they're doing to students. And these students, who are studying until the cows come home, are going insane. This isn't safe for our roads! More deaths occur each finals season from student drivers who are falling asleep, or too busy thinking about Latin derivations and philosophers nobody in the real world cares about. If colleges stopped giving finals, we wouldn't have this problem!"

When asked what she thought would be a better solution, Safety began listing off a variety of ideas. Several protesters nearby offered their opinions as well. The favoured proposal to stopping exams and creating safer roads was raising the standard in class, and giving grades based on what students would need to know in real life. Paul Dropout, a fellow protester, and chairman of SAT--Sitizens Against Tests--said that finals "were a ploy from money-grubbing colleges who are just trying to destroy the economy and American values." Even some professors joined the anti-finals protesters, including an English professor who asked to remain anonymous. When asked why she was taking a stand against the very college she taught at, she explained, "I care more about my students learning. I don't want them to have to dose up on 5-hour energy drinks and possibly kill me as they ignore a light change in an intersection. Finals aren't necessary to see if a student knows what they're doing. It's far better to give them a research paper topic at the beginning of the course, so they can work on it all semester and not worry about any exams."

Other professors, however, see it differently. Phillip Final, spokesperson for Colleges United, objected to the protesters. "Their points are silly," Final said. "They are refusing to look at the matter from a rational perspective. They were probably just burned in school and are protesting over a C- they felt they were unfairly given. Not that it matters, they still graduated, didn't they? Besides, if we didn't give exams, we wouldn't be able to continue growing our zombie army with which to take over the world. Road safety is trivial when held in comparison to the important things in life. After all, who really cares how many people die in car accidents, or how the students feel? We're in this for power, not wishy-washy unicorns."

SAT told reporters that they plan to bring this to court, once and for all. No reply has been made from Colleges United, and at last check, they still haven't retained a lawyer. Several students at a nearby college told us in confidence that they fear that rather than arguing it out in the judicial system, like normal Americans, Colleges United will resort to absolute warfare -- revealing the true extent of their zombie army. And what better time than now, when they have a fresh crop ripe for the picking?

Today was supposed to be Cookie Baking Day. However, I am low on ingredients (damn) and it is very cold and rainy outside. On days like this, I wish I had a car. Or a boyfriend with a car. (Well, obviously...)

Jazzvox Christmas party on Tuesday (need to by a gift swap present. No clue what to get....) Luckily, I am off on Tuesday altogether (and don't have to be at work until 3 on Wednesday...) so I can maybe do some baking before the party... and I'm going to try to bring cookies to work for my department on Wednesday. I'll have to go in early, though, because a lot of people leave before 3. Hmmm...

Dad's birthday is this week. Will have to call him.

For now, I'm going to wait out the worst of the rain and eat left-over Chinese and watch Castle on Hulu.

Also, browniebag, I'm caught up on Glee. WAY TO SHOVE ALL THE WORTHWHILE PLOT INTO TWO EPISODES, GUYS. It actually felt like a season finale... but is it? Gods know how TV schedules work anymore.

Title: The Godfather Paradox
Author: quean_of_swords
Summary: When you're in trouble, you call the Doctor, and Charlie Elliott is in trouble. Her parents have disappeared and it’s as if they never even existed. Can the Doctor put things right again before the universe unravels?
Characters: The (Tenth) Doctor, Captain Jack Harkness, OCs, some Martha Jones, Gwen Cooper, Rhys Williams, mentions of Donna Noble, Rose Tyler, Ianto Jones.
Spoilers: New Who through S4. Pre-"The Next Doctor", Torchwood through "Children of Earth".
Rating: PG-13 (just for a little language, and occasional suggestive idea, and because I’d rather be safe than sorry)
Word Count: 75,000+ (complete!)
Disclaimer: Obviously, I own none of it. I would dearly love a TARDIS and a Doctor of my own, but I’ll just have to make do with borrowing them. I promise not to break them. It all belongs to the BBC.
Beta: paintedpprglass, nycscribbler & hermionepadfoot I LOVE YOU ALL SO HARD.
Notes: Previous chapter(s) found here! [ link ]


( Why don't you tell me what happened... )


Chapter 4 ... forthcoming!

(Ah ah ah...!)

That's what these are turning into, it seems. Don't have a whole lot to say at the moment, really, so I haven't been posting much. And honestly, I'm busy enough that two or three days can pass without my even turning my computer on, so maybe it's just as well. :)

School continues to go well. My student teacher will be taking over right around Martin Luther King day (just past mid-January, for those of you who aren't in the States), and she's finally starting to really get that being "nice" doesn't work in a classroom; you have to be strict enough to keep them quiet so you can teach. It took her a while to get there, but she finally is, and I'm pleased as punch. :)

I took a couple cards off the Giving Tree at one of our neediest elementary schools, and to my horror, discovered that I was supposed to buy Twilight shirts for these girls. Luckily, I found 'em for $10 at WalMart today; I was dreading having to go to the mall to buy shirts for a book/movie whose message and characters I really don't care for, but at least all I had to do was brave WalMart on a Saturday evening. And I managed to get some really cute tops for me, too, so it wasn't a total waste of time.

Yesterday was our family "December birthdays" get-together. My youngest nephew (whom I'll call CJ), my older nephew's girlfriend (the one who's pregnant, whom I'll call CB), and my mom all have December birthdays, so we tend to group them together. (We group our October and January birthdays, too. Weird how we tend to "clump" in our family.) I got my mom Ted Kennedy's memoir and a Norman Rockwell calendar, CJ a book of articles off "The Onion" and another from FAILblog.com, and CB the first two of the Sookie Stackhouse books, which she's been wanting to read. All were received with joy, so yay me! :)

I haven't managed to decorate my apartment yet--not beyond putting a couple wreaths up, anyway--but I do have most of my Christmas shopping done. I bought my sister's some time ago, and ordered both nephews' gifts, BIL's gift, and CB's gift from Amazon.com. Now I just need to buy Mom's and niece's, and a few stocking stuffers for Mom as well, and I'll be done. Whee!

The weather's been FREAKING COLD (8F when I got up the last few days! That's -13C!) and hasn't made it above freezing for more than an hour or so a day for the past WEEK. They're finally forecasting some precipitation, which will warm us up a bit, and by mid-week temps should be back up around 40F, which is MUCH more like normal--though I think they're supposed to fall again early next week. By that point I won't care, though; only one more week of school until winter break! (If we're really lucky, we'll have some 2-hour delays for school this week. It's always craziest the week before winter break. Seriously.)

And now it's well after 11--how did that happen?--and I need to get off to bed. Maybe I'll get some decorating done tomorrow, since I don't have to brave the damn mall in search of Twilight shirts. If I do, I'll post pictures. :)

• 13:15 I feel like I have freeweights hanging on my eyelids. #

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