tag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-04:284874Scales and TalesKraitKrait2020-04-12T18:24:21Ztag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-04:284874:253559Entertaining and possibly helpful2020-04-12T18:24:21Z2020-04-12T18:24:21Zpublic0Nicking this from <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://lannamichaels.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://lannamichaels.dreamwidth.org/'><b>lannamichaels</b></a></span>: <br /><br />Head on over to <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://fictional-fans.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png' alt='[community profile] ' width='16' height='16' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://fictional-fans.dreamwidth.org/'><b>fictional_fans</b></a></span> and <a href="https://fictional-fans.dreamwidth.org/51468.html">describe your WIP badly</a>. <br /><br /><br />As fun (and funny) as these are to read, I've done it before and always feel like it strengthens my summary skills in the long run. Summaries are hard for me! Trying to make them funny requires making them pithy and concise - and you can't miss the point without knowing what the point is. Trying to come up with a funny misinterpretation helps me see the big picture and describe the core elements, even when I'm laughing about them.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=krait&ditemid=253559" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-04:284874:242331Time travel2019-09-07T16:07:24Z2020-04-12T15:31:46Zpublic5Welp. More than a month ago, <a href="https://krait.dreamwidth.org/241085.html#comments">I said I wanted to post about some tropes I enjoy</a>, and asked for prompts. <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://schneefink.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://schneefink.dreamwidth.org/'><b>schneefink</b></a></span> suggested time travel.<br /><br />It turns out... I don't actually have a lot of thoughts about time travel. :D I'm not drawn to time-traveling plots in canons. Ficwise, I could only think of a handful of stories I've enjoyed that used the trope, and my primary enjoyment wasn't the time travel itself, but the tropes that sometimes accompany it.<br /><br />Mainly, time travel is a great vehicle for identity porn, or setting up pairings that would otherwise be impossible in canon. :D <br /><br /><i>Edit: <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://dancing-serpent.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://dancing-serpent.dreamwidth.org/'><b>dancing_serpent</b></a></span> mentioned the Fish Out of Water trope, and that's definitely a trope I love, as well! I can't think of any time-travel stories where this is co-starring trope, except perhaps H.G. Wells' </i>The Time Machine<i>, but I'd love suggestions.</i><br /><br /> <br /><br />Anyway, have some fic recs<br /><br /><a href="http://www.masterapprentice.org/archive/i/in_my_end.html">In My End is My Beginning</a> by Lilith Sedai. The first time-travel fic I really remember reading! A nice blend of the two reasons for time-travel tropes: identity porn (because Obi-Wan can't reveal that he knows Qui-Gon), and smut (featuring adult!Obi-Wan and knight!Qui-Gon). :D<br /><br />This <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/series/902526">time travel threesomes</a> Yuri on Ice Yuuri/Victor series by seventhstar. I'm not sure what I enjoyed more, the porn or the little hints about how time travel is a regular phenomenon in this world. More AUs like this, please? <br /><br /><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/2660255">To Memory Now I Can't Recall</a> MCU Bucky/Steve fic by Etharei - excellent weaving of actions and timestreams, which can be tricky. <br /><br /><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/3150752">If the bad time are coming let 'em come</a> MCU Bucky/Steve by Suzukiblu. Winter Soldier does the time-travelling, runs into tiny!Steve.<br /><br /><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/1926288">Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square</a> MCU Bucky/Steve fic by Speranza - The Avengers find a time portal. Steve jumps right in. This proves to be a dumber move than jumping out of a plane without a parachute, and the team has to go in and find him and get him out to undo the damage he's done to the present day.<br /><br /><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/547876">It's Not Nostalgia</a> by Zekkass - MCU Bucky/big!Steve/little!Steve threesome porn. <br /><br /><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/13002483">All that You Need to Say</a> Nirvana in Fire Jingyan/Mei Changsu fic by Kitsunealyc. Jingyan travels years into the past in a desperate attempt to cure Mei Changsu's mysterious illness. Identity porn abounds, as Jingyan has to pretend he doesn't know Mei Changsu, while Lin Shu pretends he doesn't know Jingyan.<br /><br /><br /><br />If you have a favourite time-travel fic or canon, please share!<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=krait&ditemid=242331" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-04:284874:225339The Fan With the Plan2019-02-18T02:22:40Z2019-02-18T03:16:34Zpublic10In an effort to keep myself on track with various things, including posting, here's a round-up of where my current fannish efforts are focused.<br /><br /><b>Rewatching Nirvana in Fire</b><br />I've just started this, so if anyone wants to join in - either rewatching, or as a first-time viewing - I'd love to have company. :D At the moment I'm just four episodes in. If other people are interested in watching along, we can come up with a specific schedule and I'll make regular posts designated for discussion! If it ends up being just me, I'll probably be quieter about it; I feel like I've flooded everyone with NiF reactions lately, and you've all been very patient about it and deserve a break in return. :D <br /><br /><b>Reading Yami no Matsuei</b><br />I started this a while ago but got sidetracked, so I plan to start over at the beginning. I'll try to post after each volume completed, to avoid being sidetracked again. No specific schedule in mind, but I should manage at absolute minimum a volume a week.<br /><br /><b>Watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood</b><br />Believe it or not, I've never watched FMA:B before! I didn't want to watch it before finishing the manga, and when I'd finished the manga it wasn't readily available, so it's taken me all this time to get round to it. :D The first anime will probably always be my true love, but for completion's sake I do want to get through Brotherhood as well. There may not be much to post about, though, given that this is the third incarnation of FMA for me.<br /><br /><b>Reading new SF/F from my To-Be-Read Pile</b><br />Most of my reading thus far this year has been rereading, but this pile needs to shrink, and this year is as good as any. :D No idea what will call to me first when I start going through it, but as long as I pick something, it's progress! (Reminder to self: take a picture of the pile and post it!)<br /><br /><b>Rec Some Fics</b><br />The lack of fic recs in this journal is just sad. Gotta get back in that rec habit, even if it means stumbling through different ideas on how to approach it till I hit on one that works. (By fandom, by trope, by length?) DW friends, if you have suggestions for recs you'd like to see, now is the time to toss them out here! I had fun posting about Identity Porn, and I've made at least one other post about a beloved trope before, so maybe that's a good approach. Or maybe it should be under a separate heading like "Write Some Meta" that would include stuff like characterisation notes and thoughts on archive warnings.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=krait&ditemid=225339" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-04:284874:222193Icon meme2019-01-20T01:42:38Z2019-01-20T01:54:40Zpublic23Last week, <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://novembermond.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://novembermond.dreamwidth.org/'><b>novembermond</b></a></span> posted with a meme to talk about three selected icons. <br /><br />Here are the ones I was assigned:<br /><br /><br /><img src="https://v.dreamwidth.org/652976/284874"> </img><br /><br />An old icon! So old that I honestly have lost a lot of the details. :D I think this one dates back to when I first started using this account; I needed some icons and figured that my limited icon-making skills would probably be better off if I ran with the snake theme than if I tried to make fannish icons. The snake in it came from a Google image search, most likely, and I just trimmed it down to fit. This is/was my "humourous post" icon, because to me the snake looks like it's laughing, or smiling.<br /><br /><br /><img src="https://v.dreamwidth.org/12839253/284874"> </img><br /><br />A new icon! Very new; I made it on 1/2/19. :D I'd been watching and posting about Nirvana in Fire, and really wanted an icon to go with those posts! Again, I don't actually have icon-making skills, so this is really intended to be a placeholder until I find some nice professional ones. It's just a screenshot of the NiF episode page on Viki, cut down and slightly resized. I like both characters, I like blue, and the lack of background detail meant iconifying it was near my skill level... though I think it still took me half an hour to get it cropped just right. :/ <br /><br /><br /><img src="https://v.dreamwidth.org/12856531/284874"> </img><br /><br />Another new icon! But it's a new icon about being an old fan. :D It was made by <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://china-shop.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://china-shop.dreamwidth.org/'><b>china_shop</b></a></span>, and I saw it in <a href="https://china-shop.dreamwidth.org/1095218.html">this icon post</a> along with a number of other old!fan icons. It reminded me of LJ and the way people always had some new fashion to complain about: <i>Why are all the icons full of tiny text nowadays?</i> and <i>People, please stop with the eye-searing custom colours!</i> or <i>What's with all these desaturated pastel icons lately?</i> <br /><br />I am not quite 40, but I have been in fandom since about 1997 (okay, I chose that date almost at random, because trying to define "in fandom" would be a huge post in itself) and find myself a little nostalgic now and then about the ways it changes and the ways it doesn't. <br /><br /><br />If you would like me to pick three of your icons for this meme, comment with "Pick me!" Or just comment and tell me about your favourite icon, yours or mine. :D<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=krait&ditemid=222193" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-04:284874:221626Identity Porn (Journaling January)2019-01-18T06:00:38Z2019-01-19T17:04:15Zpublic5Today's Journaling January prompt from <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://extrapenguin.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://extrapenguin.dreamwidth.org/'><b>extrapenguin</b></a></span> was <i>Identity Porn</i><br /><br /><br />This is a trope that I really enjoy, and also find really difficult to describe. It's an umbrella kink that encompasses several different aspects of narrative play around the concept of identity. <br /><br />The most general definition I can give is this: <i>"Identity Porn" is a narrative examination of the tension caused by a character's efforts to conceal their identity in some way, or by uncertainty about their true identity.</i> Stricter definitions might exclude the latter clause, but I feel that an identity "concealed" by outside interference from all parties can also meet the emotional and narrative beats of the Identity Porn trope.<br /><br /><br /><b>Setup</b><br />Superheroes are the classic example, perhaps because of the double-whammy (a superhero passing as a regular person is in essence maintaining <i>two</i> concealed identities) but Identity Porn comes with lots of options. Spies, undercover detectives, clones, celebrities, military operatives, dethroned royalty, crossdressers, revenge seekers, amnesiacs, and time-travellers all get a slice of the Identity Porn pie! Identity is a complicated and very personal concept, so it makes sense that any kind of long-term manipulation of identity is going to pull a lot of emotional strings.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://krait.dreamwidth.org/221626.html#cutid1">Discussion and Related Tropes</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div> <br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___2" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://krait.dreamwidth.org/221626.html#cutid2">Canon Recs for Identity Porn</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___2" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___3" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://krait.dreamwidth.org/221626.html#cutid3">Fic Recs for Identity Porn</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___3" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br />So there you have it, lots of rambling about Identity Porn. :D If you have recs for other canons or fics, or thoughts on what makes this trope satisfying, please comment with them!<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=krait&ditemid=221626" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-04:284874:219426Journaling January2018-12-31T05:07:47Z2019-01-02T01:50:59Zpublic10Instead of Dreamwidth December. :D <br /><br />Basically, if there's something you want me to talk about, comment with that subject (and optionally a date) and I will make a post about it in January!<br /><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://krait.dreamwidth.org/219426.html#cutid1">Edit: Dates and topics so far below the cut.</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br />Feel free to add more items to the list any time before January 31st. :D <br /><br />If you also missed DW December or just love receiving prompts, please feel free to steal, spread, adapt, or adopt Journaling January as your own! :D<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=krait&ditemid=219426" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-04:284874:217741Question: What fandoms are bringing you the most joy right now?2018-12-04T03:56:50Z2019-01-31T02:44:19Zpublic20<span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://kass.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://kass.dreamwidth.org/'><b>kass</b></a></span> gave me <a href="https://kass.dreamwidth.org/2334967.html">five questions</a> to answer, and I'm finally getting around to them! Out of order, but answering them. :)<br /><br /><i>3. What fandoms are bringing you the most joy right now?</i><br /><br />Icon very relevant. :D <br /><br />This last month or so, I've been revisiting lots of old anime fandoms. Not sure why - just fell into it, I guess! So there's been much reviewing of nostalgic favourites (Weiss Kreuz, anyone? Tell me your favourite assassin!), and browsing fanfic, and in some cases lamenting the lack of fanfic. <br /><br />Old series I've been into lately: Weiss Kreuz, Yami no Matsuei, Gundam Wing, Outlaw Star.<br /><br />Newer series: Skullface Bookseller Honda-San, Princess Jellyfish.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://krait.dreamwidth.org/217741.html#cutid1">Rambling about anime below the cut!</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><br />...Anyway! <br /><br />Those have been some of the highlights of my recent fandom nostalgia trip, and now I really ought to make some rec posts for some of them! *adds it to the to-do list*<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=krait&ditemid=217741" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-04:284874:207364Fandom nostalgia2017-01-20T06:22:38Z2017-01-20T06:22:38Zpublic14So for Christmas, I finally got round to digging up all the old photos of trips I had taken with a friend back in 2012; this involved digging up the converted-to-external hard drive of my computer from that era and browsing through it.<br /><br />(I'm organised, in my own very unique way. But it's the kind of way where four years later my filing system may defeat rational analysis, and "where did I put that? What did I NAME the folder for that?!" is a common refrain.)<br /><br />While I was doing this, I of course ended up browsing through a lot of other stuff as well, including a whole bunch of my earliest fandom-related folders, when I was just a young serpent learning how this whole 'online fandom' thing worked; I've got canon materials, fan art, LJ icons, drabbles I was working on, and miscellaneous tangential materials all saved together in a jumble. (This post was almost a "political cartoons about Harry Potter" post. Why do I have so many of them? Why were there so many of them? One forgets just <i>how</i> much of a sensation HP was, until things like this crop up to remind one!) <br /><br />Anyway! I felt such a wave of fandom nostalgia while going through this stuff. So many names I remember: Snaples, Brevisse, Seviet, Lizard, Raven Dunbar, Dovie, sine_qua_non767, Nimori, wikdsushi, Telanu, amethyst_lupin, Donna Bond, Gwyllion, Yukipon, Cybele... I remember them all so fondly, and can't help wondering where they are now, and missing them, and just generally missing the way fandom <i>was</i>, in those days. We were all so joyfully talkative, the fic and art and meta and casual LJ posts just pouring out of us! They felt like friends, though we never met in person. <br /><br />(A few of you are still around! Hi, <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://isis.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://isis.dreamwidth.org/'><b>isis</b></a></span> and <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://dementordelta.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://dementordelta.dreamwidth.org/'><b>dementordelta</b></a></span>! There's fanart for your fics stored on my external hard drive and it gave me so many lovely feelings to see it again!) <br /><br />Seeing "c.2003" and "[name] '04" on so much stuff is kind of mind-boggling, too, because I'm not a person who Has Skills when it comes to tracking time; I joke about being an Old Fan, but it's still a little bit shocking to realise that I was downloading explicit fanworks in a year when half of Homestuck fandom was in elementary school. And HP fandom wasn't my first fandom, but it does seem to be the first one where there was a <i>wealth</i> of fan-created artwork as well as fic - especially explicit fanart. One day I should put together a timeline! <br /><br />It's really interesting, looking back at it so discretely; one notices trends and little signs of the times... The aforementioned increase in fan art generally, and in explicit fan art. A huge amount of fan art done in traditional media, with all the little things that go with it: handwritten captions and speech in comics, scanner blur. Long-URL personal websites under the artist's signature. Lots of meta-jokes about fandom itself.<br /><br />Anyway, this post doesn't really have a point. I just tripped over some old fandom stuff and fell headlong into ~~emotions~~ and wanted to fling names out into the void in the faintest hope that they might not be gone forever; someone might know where (and who) they are these days, and pass the word that someone still thinks of them and their work from time to time.<br /><br />Tell me about your old fandoms, and whether you ever peek into the souvenirs of your past fannish days!<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=krait&ditemid=207364" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-04:284874:205202The Dreamwidth Meme2016-08-23T03:38:57Z2016-08-24T02:21:19Zpublic16This meme stolen from <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://melannen.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://melannen.dreamwidth.org/'><b>melannen</b></a></span> and <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://extrapenguin.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://extrapenguin.dreamwidth.org/'><b>extrapenguin</b></a></span>, to help repair the lack of posts in my journal lately. <br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://krait.dreamwidth.org/205202.html#cutid1">21 Questions, With Answers!</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=krait&ditemid=205202" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-04:284874:188268December Meme: Fandom Labels (self-insert variety)2014-12-29T03:17:08Z2014-12-29T03:17:40Zpublic0This prompt came from <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://seerofbread.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://seerofbread.dreamwidth.org/'><b>seerofbread</b></a></span>: "Titles/categories from fandoms that you apply to yourself. (For example, what Hogwarts house would you be in, or do you even think/care about those things?)"<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://krait.dreamwidth.org/188268.html#cutid1">Read more...</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br />It's not something I <i>don't</i> think about, because an instinctive part of me wants to be involved in any canon I'm serious about, and that includes "where do I fit in"-type assessments like this, not to mention that it's hard to avoid as a side-thought when doing related types of meta (character analysis, or contrasting the different categories, etc.)! However, it's not something I get deathly serious about, either; I generally prefer to lavish the lion's share of my fannish brain capacity on other forms of meta. <strike>But everybody has that thinly veiled self insert OC deep inside them.</strike> <br /><br />What about you, readers? What categories from fandom have you considered, applied, or rejected?<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=krait&ditemid=188268" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-04:284874:187755December Meme: Designing the ideal canon2014-12-24T03:40:29Z2014-12-24T03:46:56Zpublic7This prompt from <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://isis.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://isis.dreamwidth.org/'><b>isis</b></a></span> was a wonderful exercise in greed: "Design the perfect canon for you from scratch! What is it about? SF, historical, fantasy? Is it a tv series or a book series or a comic series or a game or....something else?" <br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://krait.dreamwidth.org/187755.html#cutid1">A tough one!</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=krait&ditemid=187755" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-04:284874:187250December Meme: Beloved childhood book2014-12-20T04:54:53Z2014-12-20T04:54:53Zpublic2What a great prompt from <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://boxofdelights.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://boxofdelights.dreamwidth.org/'><b>boxofdelights</b></a></span>: "Tell me about a book that you loved when you were a child, that you would still recommend today."<br /><br />This was in many ways a tough choice, because I read a <i>lot</i> as a kid, and a lot of my reading material was formative for me in some way! I ended up including both my choice and a runner-up.<br /><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://krait.dreamwidth.org/187250.html#cutid1">I read a lot of award-winning fiction when I was a kid!</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=krait&ditemid=187250" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-04:284874:187105December Meme: Vanyel's Legend2014-12-20T00:41:13Z2014-12-20T00:41:13Zpublic7My prompt for the 14th was: "What's your take on the whole Vanyel legend/story? What upsets you the most about it?" Thanks, <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://kowe.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://kowe.dreamwidth.org/'><b>kowe</b></a></span>!<br /><br />There are really two parts to this prompt; Vanyel's legend, and Vanyel's story! In canon, these things definitely differ, so I shall try to address both.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://krait.dreamwidth.org/187105.html#cutid1">Stories become legends, legends become fanfic.</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=krait&ditemid=187105" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-04:284874:186728December Prompt Meme: Good Characters2014-12-14T04:21:57Z2015-01-06T06:17:43Zpublic0My prompt for the 13th was supplied by <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://blnchflr.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://blnchflr.dreamwidth.org/'><b>blnchflr</b></a></span>, who asked me to talk about "Characters who are Good whom you like (unless you don't like any Good characters)."<br /><br />I spent about three days trying to work out an answer to this one, only to belatedly realise that I may be overthinking it -- I kept trying to figure out the difference between good and Good, and it only occurred to me yesterday that maybe the uppercase was just an attempt to distinguish "a morally good character" from "a good character" in the sense of well-written. *facepalming* <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://blnchflr.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://blnchflr.dreamwidth.org/'><b>blnchflr</b></a></span>, feel free to chime in with your intentions! <br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://krait.dreamwidth.org/186728.html#cutid1">Some thoughts below the cut!</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br />Well, that got long, and kind of turned into a "discuss two tropes you've grown to hate" meta more so than one on good characters and goodness! Sorry. *sheepish* In summary: I have a lot of ~feelings~ about the notion of "Good People" and characters who think they belong in that category, most of which are bound up in the very shallow, platitude-y way that many canons apply it.<br /><br /><br /><b>Edit:</b> Just discovered my HTML was borked, and half this entry never showed up! Welp. Fixed now, and I did a bunch of editing, too. Hope somebody notices!<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=krait&ditemid=186728" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-04:284874:186187December Meme: Fannish reading and writing overlap2014-12-12T02:10:38Z2014-12-12T02:10:38Zpublic3Today's prompt comes from <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://edenfalling.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://edenfalling.dreamwidth.org/'><b>edenfalling</b></a></span>, and is technically Tuesday's prompt: <i>Do your fannish reading and writing interests always overlap? If not, is there any pattern to their intersection or lack thereof?</i><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://krait.dreamwidth.org/186187.html#cutid1">This was tricky!</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br />This is a HUGE topic, and I'm trying to keep this entry from becoming so large it collapses under its own weight, so jump in and ask for clarifications if I've muddled something. Or tell me what your own reading and/or writing hot-buttons are, and whether they share certain features and how they diverge!<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=krait&ditemid=186187" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-04:284874:185113December Meme: How I discovered Homestuck2014-12-04T04:56:02Z2014-12-04T04:56:02Zpublic12Looping back today to cover my prompt for the 1st, which I forgot about. (It's oddly appropriate, considering the topic! This is a fandom that delights in screwing with the temporal dimensions of any number of realities!) <br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://krait.dreamwidth.org/185113.html#cutid1">Prompt by Edenfalling: How did you get into Homestuck?</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div> <br /><br />Tell me how you got into Homestuck, if you are! Or talk to me about backwards fandoms: have you ever entered a fandom backwards? How long did it take, and how hard was it?<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=krait&ditemid=185113" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-04:284874:184931December Meme: Valdemar & Companion Soulbonds2014-12-03T03:02:34Z2014-12-03T03:02:34Zpublic9Starting this meme off the right way by completely forgetting I had a prompt for the 1st, heh. Oh, well; I have a prompt for today, so I'll move the missed one to the 3rd. <br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://krait.dreamwidth.org/184931.html#cutid1">Prompt by Toft: Thoughts on Valdemar and the Companions soulbonding system!</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=krait&ditemid=184931" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-04:284874:180841Want to help with fandom research?2014-07-22T03:10:48Z2014-07-22T03:10:48Zpublic4I just discovered <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://fandomthennow.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://fandomthennow.dreamwidth.org/'><b>fandomthennow</b></a></span>/<a href="http://katiedidnt.net/fandomthennow/">Fandom Then/Now</a>, the dissertation project of Katherine Morrissey, who is comparing her Master's thesis research data from 2008 - shortly before the release of the Archive of Our Own - with new data, post-LJ and AO3. <br /><br />If you would like to comment, visit the <a href="http://katiedidnt.net/fandomthennow/">Fandom Then/Now site</a> and check it out! If you'd like to help spread word of the project, you can link to the Dreamwidth account, <a href="http://fandomthennow.livejournal.com">LiveJournal account</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/fandomthennow/status/491330191650586624">Twitter link</a>, and/or <a href="http://fandomthennow.tumblr.com/post/92463999558/announcing-the-fandom-then-now-webproject">Tumblr account</a>! <br /><br />Important details, including how to have your identity screened or submit comments via an alterate method, can be found at the <a href="http://katiedidnt.net/fandomthennow/pages/identity_protection.html">Identity Protection</a> page.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=krait&ditemid=180841" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-04:284874:180734sorry, it's time for cranky!Krait again.2014-07-21T00:09:45Z2014-07-21T00:11:50Zpublic22So.<br /><br />This week I keep running into people on Tumblr ~*~lamenting~*~ how Tumblr is so hard to have fannish conversations on, how the old LJ/webring/whatever days were so much more interconnected, how much harder it is to find stuff or keep stuff on Tumblr, how it's harder to control who sees what and thus some stuff has to go unsaid, how deeply they wish they could tell people "I liked that" or "I feel that way, too" and talk to people like they used to...<br /><br />and they're posting this <i>on Tumblr</i>.<br /><br />IF YOU MISS THE INTERACTION SO MUCH, <b>POST TO YOUR BLEEDIN' INTERACTIVE SITE OF CHOICE</b>! <br /><br />Ahem. Sorry 'bout that. But it really does drive me up the wall; I want to shout at them, "The power is within your grasp!" Crying about it on the very platform guaranteed not to open a meaningful dialogue about it suggests to me that you don't actually want those things, you just... I dunno, actually. Want to feel sad for a while, and any cause will do? Want to brag about how Experienced In Fandom you are? Are having a bout of <i>I'm old and nobody understands</i> and couldn't resist whining? <br /><br />Why would you complain (in some posters' cases, deeply and comprehensively) about how hard it is to do fandom now that it's (partly) on Tumblr, and then proceed to ignore any of the ways you could fight the shift/help the parts that <i>aren't</i> there? <br /><br />Nobody says you have to pick Just One Place to be fannish in! Crossposting is a thing that can happen. For that matter, use one as a simple alert system for the other -- remember how we used to do fake LJ-cuts for outside links? Yeah. Post somewhere that allows for discussion, and then make some fake Read-Mores on your Tumblr that link to your LJ, or whatever you use! If your Tumblr posts are generally short, do a "daily roundup", ML digest style, to consolidate them in one DW post. <br /><br />There are tonnes of ways to <i>be</i> interactive, not just whatever it was you used Back When Everything Was Great. But if all you do is use the "most popular" option, then you should stop complaining about it -- you're part of why The Ways We Used Before aren't as active, and it makes you look disingenuous at best.<br /><br /><br />NB: Yes, I really am done complaining now. I really appreciate all of the people who <i>don't</i> do this sort of thing, y'know -- thank you, all of you who continue to use other platforms for fannishness because you prefer that communication style! People who know what they want and refuse to follow the crowd when it makes them unhappy are people I'm happy to read and squee with. ♥<br /><br />NB2: The fake-readmores thing is something I've been vaguely considering doing with my own DW for a while now, actually! Anybody with more familiarity with Tumblr want to chime in with whether this seems feasible? (I know I post infrequently; would I be seen at all, or would I be swept away in the jetstream too quickly?)<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=krait&ditemid=180734" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-04:284874:176543Snark incoming.2014-02-24T06:04:10Z2014-02-24T06:06:31Zpublic17Possibly one of the most useful features of a sci-fi/fantasy fandom: it's really easy to weed out fics you <i>don't</i> want to read, just by checking to see which ones can't spell the fandom-specific made-up words correctly. Kismesitude? Paidi Aiji? Valdemarian? NOPE, sorry, no +1 hit count for you! <br /><br />(Also useful in these fandoms: excluding "human AU" from your search results; but that's another rant for a different day.)<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=krait&ditemid=176543" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-04:284874:172022December Meme Post 32013-12-17T04:42:14Z2013-12-17T04:42:44Zpublic6...Post 2 hasn't happened yet, but it will. *wry* <br /><br />Today's (okay, yesterday's) prompt was from <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://tropicsbear.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://tropicsbear.dreamwidth.org/'><b>tropicsbear</b></a></span>: "Why snakes?"<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://krait.dreamwidth.org/172022.html#cutid1">The answer is: lots of reasons!</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=krait&ditemid=172022" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-04:284874:171673December Meme Post 1 (a little late, yikes!)2013-12-11T19:47:31Z2014-01-01T03:52:27Zpublic11My prompt for December 8th was from <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://sylvaine.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://sylvaine.dreamwidth.org/'><b>sylvaine</b></a></span>: xeno!<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://krait.dreamwidth.org/171673.html#cutid1">What to say about xeno?</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=krait&ditemid=171673" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-04:284874:167348Maybe I should join Hannibal fandom.2013-09-07T00:58:09Z2013-09-07T00:58:09Zpublic16I was cruising past some Homestuck blogs on Tumblr, and apparently there's a meme (or maybe it was just an ask; I don't do Tumblr) about "common Homestuck headcanons you don't subscribe to" and the person discussed 'grubloaf/grubsauce is made from troll grubs' fanon. According to her, it felt too anvilicious; like being beaten over the head with how troll culture is WRONG and HORRIBLE, and also as though someone's trying too hard to gross people out.<br /><br />This made me double-take and then giggle because it's a fanon I've encountered a lot and, while it's not my personal headcanon either, it never gave me the feeling that it was supposed to be a squick attempt or a commentary on troll culture! It's always weird to re-remember that my reactions to cannibalism aren't the norm.<br /><br />Maybe it's my biology geek showing through (plenty of species eat their offspring/siblings!) or maybe it's just my pragmatic attitude to food (if it's tasty, eat it), but when I encounter the troll-grubs-as-food fanon I just sort of... accept it? It's not horrific to me, so it never felt like "let me show you how BAD trolls are!"; likewise, it's not gross to me, so it never struck me as "are you making gagging noises yet?" either. More or less I treat it the same as any other popular bit of fanon I don't personally subscribe to, e.g. neck gills on seadwellers. If asked, I'll explain why it's not my headcanon, but otherwise? So long as the author isn't egregiously fail!splaining it in-story and forcing me to remember why I don't believe it, I can fit it into my mental framework for the duration of the fic and not think about it. <br /><br />In sum: "Grubloaf is made from grubs!" doesn't ping me in any moral spectrum or in my gastroesophageal reflexes, and sometimes I get reminded how weird that makes me. :D<br /><br /><br />(For non-Homestuck people: trolls are an alien species that hatch out as insect-like grubs, which later pupate into more humanoid shape to continue development. They seem to be a <i>r</i>-strategist species, at least insofar as requiring little parental care and reproducing - one infers - in large numbers, many of which never make it to their first pupation.)<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=krait&ditemid=167348" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-04:284874:161614Linking this here so I can't lose it.2013-06-12T04:05:47Z2013-07-31T01:31:18Zpublic0AKA "fabulous meta on the Alternian language, with some elements I had already considered", AKA "Headcanon: Accepted" AKA "YES THIS!!"<br /><br /><a href="http://manyblinkinglights.tumblr.com/post/52752181569/ashkatom-daemoninwhite-asukaskerian">I love all of these people.</a> (Okay, I'm only distantly familiar with Ashkatom, and not at all with Daemoninwhite, but everyone else is somebody whose blog I pay regular attention to, and now you know why!)<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://krait.dreamwidth.org/161614.html#cutid1">Transcript of Tumblr conversation under the cut:</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=krait&ditemid=161614" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-04:284874:159911Minor grumping.2013-05-22T03:43:47Z2013-05-22T03:43:47Zpublic6Dear Homestuck authors:<br /><br />If you are writing an all-human AU, please tag your fic with that! <br /><br />Hint: tagging it with plain old "AU", or any subcategory thereof (such as "college AU") does not remove the need for a "Humanstuck" tag.<br /><br />Thanks.<br /><br />P.S. - I realise this is a matter of personal taste, but <i>why</i> do you all write so much humanstuck fic?! Your fic would be a thousand times better if it were, say, a coffee shop AU or college AU or rock band AU, or <i>whatever</i>, and did that without ducking out of the issues that come along with mixing two disparate cultures and species! Call me a one-trick pony, but watching humans and trolls pair up and accomplish life goals is ever so much more interesting when you don't take away two-thirds of the potential conflict before the story even starts.<br /><br />Sigh.<br /><br />P.P.S - Star Trek fandom, this goes for you, too. (I haven't been reading you nearly as much, lately, but that may change when/if I see the movie, so you can't hide forever!)<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=krait&ditemid=159911" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments