So my dad, after what was undoubtedly a perilous quest in the dusty depths of the Mines of Moria our basement, found his old bag of dice. We're talking original edition DnD here, mind.

I'm sitting here, working on some crackfic and a PPC mission, and he comes in and shows me. And there was much rejoicing.

As I explained to my mum, you know how in fantasy novels, the hero will be given his birthright in the form of the Special Sword Of What Have You, the Impenetrable Armor Made By Elves Or Dwarves Or Something Of That Sort, all of which have been handed down for generations, etc, etc...

That's what I feel like right now. Like I have come into my inheritance as a geek.

Or I'm just a nerdy drama queen with one hell of an overactive imagination. Take your pick.

Either way, Dad let me nick a d20, so I shall probably be looking up wire-wrapping techniques, grabbing some pliers, and making a pendant out of it á la this.

 Started this on Friday. More specifically, during Pre-Calculus. 

( Things I Am Not Allowed To Do On Serenity )
May be updated as events warrant. Further suggestions welcome. 

 So, for extenuating reasons involving the central themes of Yann Martel's Life of Pi, we're assigned to write something about the power of fiction, drawing on our own early memories of reading and writing.

I thought about how much of what I read -what I have always read- has been centred around animals, and how much that influenced my imagination. (I could ramble on for ages, with a wealth of examples, but that's not  currently the point.)

My teacher openly stated we could address this however we wanted, and when she mentioned the possibility of a short story, my ears pricked up.

Short as this is, it feels good to have some original fiction that seems actually complete, that says something, that isn't just a rambling fancy that can't sustain itself long enough to resolve a plot. And maybe all of that's just bollocks, but I still feel good right now. ^_^

Saved on Gdocs again:


http://docs.google.com/View?id=dd2q4g55_30g5pbc4jn


Also, I definitely love this year's lunch-table group; a discussion that veered wildly off the track and into unusual animal sex facts resulted in my cheerfully contributing the (to me, not all that bizarre) existence of hemipenes in koalas and lizards. 

I subsequently ended up laughing like a hyena at the look I was given by one of my audience members. (Hmm, that reminds me... female hyenas have interesting reproductive systems of their own, but I digress.)

On a different topic once again, I found that I often don't sleep well on Sunday nights, and when I finally did drift off, I ended dreaming that I was in Australia, in a restaurant, ordering Chinese food to go. 
All the people had American accents, there were gale-force winds outside, and the food was your classic Chinese takeout sort of deal.
I need to stop talking to lady_rilwen  before I sleep, before my subconscious does anything weirder to her native country. Sheesh. 

Also, in said dream, I complained about the song which had been stuck in my head before I fell asleep, was still stuck in my head in the dream, and was still playing when I woke up a few hours later. (A few of the lines from "Brand New Day" from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, since you ask.)

Let it also be known that, although I do not literally bounce up and down with glee very often, I have no shame in having done so when my father, in response to my mother's question of why he married a non-scientist (read: non-geek), told her, "At the time, it seemed the logical thing to do."

If my dad is Sarek, vampirechipmunk, am I now officially Spock?

 I write random things as a matter of course. Even the ones that don't make half a grain of sense can prove interesting in odd ways, little drabbles and whatnot.

And then you have the things that result when you're really, really bored, the things that seem like good ideas at the time, bizarre and new and- dare I say it?- daring.

You decide that you want your audience to think, What the bloody hell is this? even as they find themselves mesmerised by the strange, twisted little world you've spun. You may giggle a bit, silently or aloud; either way, it will be manic.

You have no idea what you're doing, and rejoice in this. And when it's suddenly made obvious what kind of plot all these mysterious lines are hinting at, you rejoice further.

And then you stop for a minute, and take a step back, and re-read some of those lines, and you slowly realise that that mesmerised audience is going to have to be under the influences of all kinds of mind-bending drugs before they can appreciate this.

In short, this is what happens when you have fun play-writing software, which you can't think of a play to write with, and suddenly decide to continue the whimsically nonsensical line of dialogue your friend just wrote down as a placeholder.

(Said friend will later gladly relinquish any and all credit for the idea, and leave you to it.)

Here's what all this narration is about, anyway. Concrit is appreciated as always, but I'd dearly like to know whether any kind of interest was piqued, or whether all you could do was stare at the screen and WTF.

Put up on GoogleDocs for viewing, since I don't particularly want to have to wrangle a massive LJ cut into submission (nor do I actually have the time).

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dd2q4g55_28cwqf67cx

 Moi: *leaning in and enunciating carefully to the side of the computer* Appears we got here just in the nick of time. What does that make us? 

lady_rilwen : Big Damn Heroes, sir. 

I was shown, this evening, how to send voice clips through a variant of MSN. 

Much amusement was had. 


Oh. Right. And since it's been ages since my last post:

Life:

I am now a high school senior. I have finally gotten over the "Holy shit, what?" factor thereof.

Still need to work on college things. 

I made another hat for myself (a tam in shaded blue yarn, imaginatively dubbed the 'River Tam' because my friends and I think we're funny).

Kudos to two of said friends for spontaneously deciding to sing "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" in the hallway today. You can't go wrong with the Beatles.

SAT again on Saturday. Ugh.

Fandom:

I am now a rather rabid Browncoat, as might have been guessed, and equally rabid for any and all things related to Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

The Big Bang Theory is also one of the best shows ever.

Music:

Within Temptation's "The Howling" and Green Day's "¿Viva La Gloria? (Little Girl)" are decidedly awesome, and Emerald Rose's "Big Damn Heroes" is extremely fun to sing along with.

Also, just as a general note? Writing with cassie5squared  is awesome. As are the immensely silly, three-continent conversations with her, myself, and lady_rilwen.  

 Today, at least in this time zone, is Monday.

School begins on Wednesday.

I keep repeating to myself things like, "Holy crap, I'm going to be a senior!"

This does not work quite so well as one might think. Am still somewhat in shock, and nervous about the upcoming year, its inherent workload, and especially the attendant thoughts about college.

Which is also a matter of much indecision.

On the other hand, since I just ended up adding another (attempt at a) song to what seems to be trying to become RC #1764: The Musical, it may do me good to have a little less time on my hands.

At least I'm nearly done watching Firefly- my deepest gratitude to Hulu. Got to watch the Big Damn Movie again last night (well, very early this morning) with vampirechipmunk . Have a much better sense of things now after watching the series, although it was still awesome even when I was seeing it all for the first time. 

On that note, need to watch final three episodes of series, and am pretty much certain of rabid-fan status by this point.

Signing off.

For those of you who don't already know, am leaving today for a trip out West.

To Montana (National parks and the state where the Vulcans made First Contact, ahoy!) and South Dakota, to be precise.

I will be keeping a journal and taking my usual massive amount of photographs.

Back on the 16th (give or take a few time zones for the rest of you lot).

Live long and prosper.

I figured I'd just keep posting this as I ended up with more of it. I feel like a very confused serial writer, albeit one with no actual deadlines.

Something may actually be happening at this point, hence the subject title. I think. Possibly.
...You get some setting information, anyway. And a couple of names. And what seems to be a considerable bit of prejudice on our heroine's part. Oh, and a dream sequence.

( Trance, a third segment )

I'd like to say the plot thickens, but I'm not entirely sure I've got one. -_-

Regardless. I find myself liking the night-eyes for some reason, even if Tabitha doesn't.

(The whole eye thing is due to the tapetum lucidum, which is the posh scientific name for the layer of reflective cells in the eyes of cats and what have you. No, they probably didn't have to give these guys orange or yellow irises to go along with it, but I have a suspicion my eugenicists are partially motivated by the Rule Of Cool. Both the color and the eyeshine are a mild surprise if you aren't expecting it, though. Which is unfortunate if said night-eyes is also aiming a gun at your head.)

And yes, vampirechipmunk , I know you thought her name was going to be Cassandra to fit with the whole 'seer' motif, but it occurred to me that there have got to be so many trancers named Cassandra, Sybil, et al that it's not even funny anymore.

Tabitha is an Aramaic name for 'gazelle,' unless the Internet is lying to me again.

Some people buy their dads power tools for Father's Day. I made mine dinner, and also wrote a short Star Trek crackfic upon request.
Involving a lot of aliens in tuxedos and a penguin, per said request.

We were all rather amused by it, so I figured I'd put it up here and torture everyone else too.

All canon characters, species, concepts, quotes, places, and related Star Trek indicia property of the late, great Gene Roddenberry- and CBS Paramount, which is still alive and well. The tiny Douglas Adams reference, of course, belongs to Douglas Adams. As does, I think, rather a bit of the general narrative style, Fan-impulses are hard to resist sometimes. *sigh*
I do own the one OC, though, which is a pity since I'm running out of room in my head for members of his species.


To reiterate, this is crack. Taking it seriously is highly inadvisable.

( Black And White )

...but I ended up continuing it.

My brain drippings are like that. I start something, I ignore it for months at a time, and then I get sufficiently bored and start adding more words onto it.

lady_rilwen usually distracts me with RPs enough that this doesn't happen, but what can you do.

This is the original:

http://lycaenion.livejournal.com/25141.html#cutid1

Here is the next segment; it's not very much, but now there seems to be the possibility of some kind of plot.

( Trance, a continuation )

And then I ran out of words again. All I know about this is that it was inspired by my browsing an anthology of young-adult fantasy and SF short stories and thinking, Hell, I can do one of these! And this was way back in March.
Oh, and human eugenics are fun. (KHAAAAAAAN! ...Yes, I had to do that.)

U.S. History and Government final tomorrow. Ugh.

...a turtle.

Yes. Do not question my whims. ;P

So I'm at the computer, pretending to do slaving away over a history assignment, and Mum, leaving for dance rehearsal, calls me outside to come see a turtle on the hill.

Being a reptile geek, I immediately abandon everything, go on a mad quest for my trusty camera, and come running outside to see said turtle.

( This is the turtle you're looking for )

'Reptile geek,' of course, means that I am a geek who thinks reptiles are fascinating creatures, not that I, as a geek, am personally of any reptilian ancestry. That would just be silly. *cough*

Taken from lady_rilwen .

1. Open your music library (iTunes, Media Player, MP3 player, etc.)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For the first question, type the song that’s playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button TWICE
6. Don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool... just type it in!

Right. So I've got a ton of stuff on my iTunes by now... movie soundtracks, Disney songs, and of course sizeable amounts each of the bands and artists I've discovered over the years.

Not all of this music is on my iPod, for the simple and somewhat silly reason that I like having different music for when I work on the computer than for the rest of my life (said iPod is generally hooked up to ears, horribly off-key singing often included).

And I don't listen to everything on here, but I don't think I'm alone in that. All of the songs, save one (the TNG suite), were actually ones I do frequently hear and love, so...

Note: I included a rather musing and frequently lengthy parenthetical analysis of each one. Read at own risk. ;P

( Here we go )

This was fun. Frequently odd, just as frequently blush- or snicker-worthy. Rather like myself. ;3

Our chief weapon is surprise, surprise such as you may feel upon learning that I'm going to be on vacation for a week, starting next Saturday.

[/severely distorted Python references]

Washington, D.C., to be exact. It seems like it's going to be fun, especially since one of my friends will actually be there at the same time, and we get to go to the zoo and see wolves. (A lady's got to have her priorities straight when she visits her nation's capital, no?)

And there will be much photography, of anything I deem fit for a massive Photo Safari Post Of Doom upon my return.

So, if any among you are unable to bear living without me for that duration, do have your next of kin contact me.

Oh, and I'm deeply obliged for all the birthday congratulations. I tip my Hat to you all.

Apparently I'm 17 today.

Also, Eric Idle shares my birthday. I am perfectly fine with this. =3

Let's see... still can't vote, still can't drink (damn, no kanar or Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters), I could drive if I had the slightest interest in doing so... but hell, I'm here, so it all works out.

Hugs and insanity to all my friends out there. No one said the fun had to stop now. ;D

Oh, and I flatly refuse to act any more mature.

The reason why I have chosen to dump whatever strange and pointless writing spills out of my brain out on here.
Also, anthologies of short fantasy/sci-fi stories just make me want to go and prove that I can write one too- hence, an influence.

Still don't know what this is.

( Trance )

Human eugenics and random present-tense narrative, yay. Specific alterations to the DNA code that do strange things to the firing of neurons and the release of certain chemicals in the brain, causing the person to enter "trance," or a strange, detached state. Although unresponsive to all outside stimuli during trance, after emerging, the person will remember sudden flashes of memory, strange visions, or even exhibit precognition (with a 50% success rate or lower, as much 'seen' during trance is imaginary).
As seen, people designed with the capability for trance are extremely passive, somewhat antisocial, and, by this time, exclusively female (it proved to have drastic, unwanted consequences in male subjects, namely dementia and neural degeneration). They are allowed some leeway in social and legal matters, as other mentally unstable people might be, hence the 'white cards.'
This is not meant to be a commentary on anything. Yet. So far as I know.

In a much shorter explanation, I live in a suburban area, northeastern US, which still has a lot of forest, and, as such, a lot of white-tailed deer.
Someone drew bat wings on a deer-crossing sign, for no apparent reason.

And Kurt Vonnegut is awesome. Thank you, psychotic English teacher, for introducing us.

Anyway, here, have some random pictures, one from today (I often carry my camera around in a small Pocket of Holding in my backpack), and a few from a couple weeks ago.

Just finished watching Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

In a word? Awesome.

(And pleasantly light fare when you've got Watchmen on the brain.)

Last time, of course, it was Dukat/Bashir. Now, in a stunning continuation of the theme of Dukat Can Manipulate Whoever The Hell He Wants Into Doing Whatever The Hell He Wants, we have a brief insight into... Dukat/Weyoun.

Written after Rilwen suggested the pairing, and my brain had recovered from the initial flood of OH ZARQUON, DO NOT WANT. By now, of course, the 'ship has taken over my brain. And yes, this is complete and total crack.

Nothing explicit under the cut, by the way- it's only the pairing which may cause my more delicate readers discomfort. I prefer subtlety to PWP, always.

( Diplomatic Relations )

If you've been tempted, go and read Rilwen's contribution. It's longer, more explanatory, and quite well-done.
http://lady-rilwen.livejournal.com/13022.html

Due to Freewebs being inexplicably annoying, have made a side-journal for PPC affairs. LJ is generally more co-operative anyway.

All four current missions have been uploaded; later ones will follow. Will probably also add any forthcoming interludes, RPs, what have you.

Located at rc1764 .



Chemistry mid-term tomorrow. Fun.

So I've gotten a little bit into Dungeons and Dragons, mostly as a result of vampirechipmunk 's new obsession with it and some very silly role-playing with lady_rilwen .
And my father, you see, is an ex-Dungeon Master. This means a) my nerdiness is at least partially genetic and b) we've got a lot of old books and manuals lying around.

So, today, I get bored and decide to look at one of these. I come to the section with character profiles. I read about one particular character, and parts of my brain short-circuit in astonishment, while others start jumping up and down in glee.

This is from the profile of Karll, Duke of Urnst, from the Greyhawk Adventures expansion of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

Which is, I ask you to bear in mind, from 1988.

"[Karll] is concerned about his duchy, mainly because it serves him in his never-ending war against evil. He is impatient with the daily necessities of government, and has become a magnet for unscrupulous persons. He naively thinks that other people mean as well as he does, and since he has recieved no training in the art of rulership, he has managed to surround himself with the greatest crowd of thieves outside of the Bandit Kingdoms.
As a result of this, the Duchy is not well-ruled...If the Duke were not so obsessed with his crusade against evil...creatures, he would probably notice [the many problems in his realm] and do something drastic about it, but he is deliberately kept in ignorance by the corrupt advisers around him.
...Duke Karll's ultimate goal is to launch a grand crusade against evil...Even though many functions of government require his presence, he still disappears...for days at a time...He sees the Duchy as a base for his crusade against evil..."

This was written twenty-one years ago.

As my father put it when I showed him, at least now we have a lawful good Paladin to save us. He also mentioned that Cheney is a perfect example of chaotic evil, but you all knew that already.