theodosia21's journal

Vacation!

2010-12-31T21:54:25Z

Hi everyone, I'm off to England in about an hour for a one-week visit to family. I have no idea how often I'll have internet access, but if I'm not commenting or late with commenting, that's why. Have a very happy & safe New Year's Eve! ^_^

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Well.

2010-06-28T03:20:32Z

Despite my best intentions, it's been a long time since I last updated this journal. Since my last update, I've graduated college, looked for a job, started a job, bought my first car, and, as of today, turned 22. Oh, I've also started up a Facebook account for the first time ever, as my RL friends insisted. I'm still at the stage of eying it suspiciously. Anyway, at the moment my life is busy and often confusing, but overall I'm happy. ^_^

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My Favorite Long Fics, Part 1

2010-05-06T01:51:46Z

Continuing my previous rec post, here is the start of my favorite long fic recs. While I've promised you ten (and that was hard enough- I have lots more I think are awesome) this is only the first, as I've been really busy lately. I'm about to start Finals, and I graduate from college next Saturday. Then I have to find a job. In short, if I wait until I have enough time to write up ten meaningful recs, it's not going to happen. So instead I'm breaking them up and posting as I have the time. Here's the first.

1. LoPiverse, A.J. Hall (aka legionseagle)
Fandom: Harry Potter (mainly), Vorkosigan Saga ('Time Shall Not Mend' is a crossover)
Summary: This is a series of nine fics of various lengths; the title "LoPiverse" comes from the first main book, Lust Over Pendle. Lust Over Pendle is a comedy of manners set in the Golden Age detective thriller genre, and is presumed to take place after the end of the seventh Harry Potter book, and, therefore, after the fall of Voldemort. It was written before the Order of the Phoenix, so it is not at all canonical.
Length: Epic (no word count provided)
Reason: This was the series that got me into fandom. I love it with a pure and everlasting love, because no matter how many times I go back and re-read it, it never lets me down. It's funny and clever and shows a keen insight into the complexities of human nature. It's Draco/Neville in a way that makes me believe in Draco/Neville, and has some of the best characterizations of Narcissa, Mrs. Longbottom, and Hermione I've ever read. It's as if Lois McMaster Bujold decided to write Harry Potter. And did I mention that it's funny?

Have a quote from Lust over Pendle:
During what wizards and witches were now coming to refer to as Recent Events Voldemort had had a simple initiation test for those recruits who - depressingly - had flocked to join him after his initial successes. If they wished to become a Death Eater they must kill a victim selected for them at random, within twenty-four hours, without assistance. Furthermore, if Voldemort's star should fall, it would be clear to the whole world that the individual's decision to take the test had been one of pure free will: no hope this time of sheltering behind Imperius.

Dying in the attempt was a honourable end (and, of course, neatly weeded out those whose incompetence might embarrass the Dark Lord later). Failing to carry out the test and surviving was not an option. Refusing the test, warning the intended victim, and then walking back to Voldemort's HQ to inform his second in command that one had done so was an act of such spectacularly suicidal stupidity that a depressed lemming would have earnestly counselled against it.

Even if the second in command concerned was the recruit's own father. Especially if the second in command was the recruit's own father.

Naturally, in the aftermath of Recent Events, when the wizard world had leisure to think once more, the question of Why? tended to arise. Various far-fetched theories were spun as to what exactly had happened the night Draco Malfoy went out to murder Hermione Granger, and returned some hours later, to tell his father that, actually, he thought becoming a Death Eater was a rotten idea, and he'd rather be excused.

Perhaps the best explanation was, after all, the simplest: Voldemort, whose grasp of his own psychology was, by that time, slipping considerably, had simply failed to appreciate that dislike, even intense dislike, is much further from hatred than it appears. Killing someone whom you have seen across the breakfast table for nearly half your life cannot be comfortably classified as mere garbage disposal, or the clinical negativing of a subject, however much you may have cringed inside at every bite of toast they ate for every breakfast of every week of that time.

Why, in any event, was not a question that occurred to Lucius Malfoy. His main objective was damage limitation. Thirty-odd years in the Dark Lord's service had polished his ability to regard people as things to a high degree.

Twenty minutes later Draco was lying in a deserted quarry forty miles from Voldemort's headquarters, already feeling the first effects of the Death in Life Potion his father had forced down his throat. As Lucius Disapparated he tossed over his shoulder two pieces of information. First, that the potion had been carefully designed to produce death and most of its after-effects, but in the wrong order. Decomposition commenced while the victim was both alive and sentient, and death, when it came, was a relief not only to the well-rotted victim, but to anyone strong stomached enough to remain in his vicinity. Secondly, that there was no antidote.

Some time later that evening, it appears, Lucius Malfoy mentioned to his wife that he had dealt with a potential family embarrassment.

This was a tactical misjudgement possibly never equalled since that of the general whose last words had been:

"Don't worry, they can't possibly hit an elephant at this dist-"

Legend, and the will to believe, clouds much of what happened next. Those allied against Voldemort were doing very badly at the time, and the impact on morale of the slightest victory was wholly disproportionate to its tactical value. Narcissa received the news quietly, but can have wasted no time. Within three hours Malfoy Manor, the fourteen top Death Eaters it was sheltering, and a cache of valuable intelligence information about Voldemort's plans had been turned over to his enemies with not a drop of allied blood being split.

As the advance party made their way unopposed into the enemy stronghold they found Lucius dead in the basement, an expression of extreme annoyance on his face. It was believed that he had committed suicide, lacking the nerve to meet either Voldemort or Narcissa alive.

By dawn Narcissa was standing over the best Potions wizard the allies could put at her disposal, holding her wand with an air of indefinable menace. Whether it was the threat, the sheer intellectual challenge, or the fact that against considerable odds she had found one of the few allied wizards who actually quite liked Draco, but Lucius Malfoy's confidence that the effects of the Death In Life Potion were irreversible proved as illusory as all his other hopes. Narcissa and her son had joined the allies, and the rest, as they say, was herstory.

The furore was amazing. As someone said, "Never in the whole history of the struggle against Voldemort was so unexpected a reversal inflicted so effectively by one so stunningly photogenic". Others might justifiably feel they had contributed more to Voldemort's defeat; Narcissa, however, got the book deals.

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Ten of My Favorite Short Fics

2010-04-28T00:01:59Z

So, in my previous post, annotated_em asked me what my "top ten favoritest fics ever" are, and what my "favorite characters/fandoms and why" are. Both of those questions require an extensive response, especially the first, so I'm breaking my answers up into several posts. In fact, asking me to list my 10 most favorite fanfics is really, really hard, so I've decided to tackle them in two groups- short fics and long fics- and then I might have another post about some WIPs I'm excited about, and maybe another about some awesome authors I might not have mentioned yet.

It's still a difficult task, but at least this way I don't have to bring out the "creative mathematics" and redefine 10 as, say, 50. *sparkles*

TL;DR- I'm going to start with 10 of my favorite short fics, where I'm defining "short" as "less than 20,000 words." There will be lots of really awesome short fics that I'm not mentioning, of course. You can see some of them here.

Anyway, in no particular order, here they are:

1. Leaving New York, by Meredith T. Tasaki
Fandom: Young Wizards
Summary: When mercenary Carmela agrees to take on a young wizard client, the job starts striking a little too close to home...
Author Notes: AU, futurefic, character death, Carmela/OFC.
Length: 15,541 words
My reason: Because this is an awesome, original character study of an amazing women and what she can accomplish without special wizardly powers. It isn't always a happy story- there's references to past character deaths- but there's a persistent sense of hope nonetheless. If you don't know the canon, not everything here will make sense to you, but I suspect you could enjoy it anyway, as the focus is on someone who was a minor character in the books and it's set in an AU future.

2. On Being A Sith Lord, by DarthAmmonite
Fandom: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Summary: Having a Sith Lord in your head is bad...having a Sith Lord with a really foul sense of humor is even worse.
Length: 17,936 words
My reason: Because it is at once hilariously funny and heartrendingly sad. What would *you* do if you found out that you used to be a Sith lord? No canon knowledge is necessarily, really, as long as you know Sith = bad guys and Jedi = good guys.

Have a quote!
"You…" said Darth Malak, closing his hand into a fist, "are Darth Revan."

Sabine glanced over her shoulder briefly to see who he was talking to. Carth? No, the surgery involved would be ridiculous. Bastila? Well, anything's possible, and she does like to hear herself talk, but I wouldn't have guessed—

"You," said Malak. "In front of me. With the purple lightsaber." It was difficult for cybernetics to look nonplussed, but he managed.

"Who, me?"

"Yes."

Sabine stared at him for a couple of seconds, and then started laughing.

"I'm what?"

"You're Darth—"

"No, I heard you, I just don't believe you. That's…just…Are you trying to lay the groundwork for some kind of insanity defense?" She gestured with the lightsaber, setting it humming. "Because I was just planning on killing you, frankly, so don't go to any trouble on my account."

She stopped. The quality of the silence behind her had gotten awfully loud.

She turned and looked. This probably wasn't the smartest thing to do with a Sith lord standing in front of her, but she looked anyway.

Carth was glaring at Bastila. Bastila had her eyes pinned on Malak, but her expression was pure guilt.

"It occurs to me," Sabine said slowly, "that I am the only one laughing."

3. The Sun Always Rises, by Lacewood
Fandom: Katekyo Hitman Reborn!
Summary: In a different world, Tsuna had a different Sun guardian - Kyoko.
Length: 10,581 words
My reason: Because Kyoko should be awesome. And in this fic, she really, really is, without ever feeling out-of-character. Warning: in order to justify that change, Ryohei is killed just before the story starts.

4. got a boy in the war, by Lisse (aka gotosleeplisse)
Fandom: Naruto
Summary: Naruto's parents don't so much fall in love as accidentally trip over it.
Length: 4,339 words
My reason: Because this is the most adorable love story ever. And the ending is a punch in the gut.

5. Triage, by mercurial_wit
Fandom: Naruto
Summary: Sasuke comes home.
Length: 7,838 words
My reason: Because my OTP for Naruto will always be a OT3, and this is the *realest* Sakura/Sasuke/Naruto story I've ever read. Their relationship isn't easy. But when they finally sort themselves out, it's all worth it. All three of them are so very much themselves.

6. Going Marching to the Sea, by gotosleeplisse (aka Lisse)
Fandom: Hetalia
Summary: The first step towards living up to your own ideals.
Length: 1,149 words
My reason: Because this is what's beautiful about my country. All you need to know is that countries have personifications. In this story, America's personification deals with the Civil War.

7. Variant, by Jamjar
Fandom: DCU
Summary: Made and manufactured by the good people at Cadmus... Now, a Tim Drake for every occasion. And all dysfunctional and creepy in their own, special way!
Length: 6,888 words
My reason: Tim Drake is my favorite DCU character, bar none. This is a fascinating AU, and I love how the ending line flips your understanding of the entire story.

8. How the Four Traveled to India, or, Somebody's Been Sleeping In My Bed, by ciceqi
Fandom: Saiyuki
Summary: Once upon a time, on the way to India...
Length: 4,688 words
My reason: 46 drabbles that tell how four messed-up people made their way to India, through the lens of fairy tales. Beautiful and creative, without a single word out of place.

9. A Maze of Twisty Passages, All Alike, by Merry
Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga
Summary: Loyalty and familial concern had driven him to join the search for Gregor; he'd never for a moment considered he might actually find him.
Length: 9,927 words
My reason: Because I've never believed that Ivan could really be as stupid and incompetent as the books made him appear. This fic lets Ivan shine while remaining completely in character. I think you could enjoy this without previous canon knowledge; I'm not sure. I suggest you give it a try anyway! Then go and buy the books- Lois McMaster Bujold's awesome. ^_^

10. The Invisible City; or, Dick Mayhew and his Marvellous Cat, by calliope85
Fandom: Neverwhere
Summary: Of the Evils Besetting the City of London; the Return of the Great Warrior; his Travels and Travails in the company of de Carabas the Traitor; and the Tale of the Lord Mayor of London.
Length: 14,077 words
My reason: Because it's beautiful and evocative and makes me want to cry and laugh at the same time. You don't need much canon knowledge- I've never read the book myself and I loved this fic.

By the way, if you want to leave your own question or prompt, you still can. ^_^

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three weeks for dreamwidth

2010-04-26T20:26:16Z

So! In honor of three_weeks_for_dw and my upcoming one-year anniversary of being on Dreamwidth, I've decided to open the floor to questions. Ask me anything! I can't guarantee an answer, but if there's something you're curious about, try me and see. Or if you'd like me to put together a rec set for a particular fandom or topic, I'd be glad to give that a try.

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life update

2010-04-17T22:08:06Z

It's been over two months since my last post, so I suppose I really should write something. I've had this journal for nearly a year now, and this will be my... 14th entry, I think? Oh well, at least this isn't a paid account.

Anyway, I've been really busy lately. I'm graduating in less than four weeks now, I have a lot of tests/papers/projects ahead of me, and I still don't know what I'm going to next. Guys, my life plan ended with college. I have no idea what I want to do in the Real World. *beats head against table*

In more cheerful news, I've recently gotten into Katekyo Hitman Reborn (episodes can be found on Crunchyroll). It's about an ordinary Japanese middle school student who discovers he's the heir to a mafia family. Yeah. Unsurprisingly, complications (and hijinks!) occur. The series bounces between being unexpectedly funny and unexpectedly serious, and despite some problematical treatment of the female characters (shonen series, why do you do this to me?) I'm enjoying it a lot. Also, there's a lot of really great KHR fanfic out there. ^_^

One last thing: kink_finders! It's "a multi-fandom fic-finder community to help you find fics that match a kink you might have -- for a broad definition of "kink" meaning "anything that presses your buttons and gets you excited". That might be something that fits the traditional meaning of kink, or a narrative technique, or a type of character, or whatever." I'm enjoying this community a lot- I like offering recs and seeing what other people recommend for a wide variety of topics. I highly encourage you to join or subscribe- the more people who get involved, the better it will be. *sparkles*

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Well done, Canada!

2010-02-13T05:29:07Z

I've been watching the opening of the Winter Olympics. I hadn't even remembered it was starting today, but my brother texted me about it and told me I should watch. It was massively impressive, which I suppose could have been expected. It was the first Olympic opening ceremony I've watched, though I've seen bits of previous Olympics. I like to watch the women's gymnastics in the Summer Olympics. ^_^ I'm not sure what I'll watch from the winter sports, but I'm sure I'll end up watching something.

Anyway, the yay!Canada part of the entertainment was done awesomely, and Leonard Cohen performed "Hallelujah", which was brilliant. It was a pity that one of the four pillars failed to rise when they did the lighting ceremony, but it was still very impressive-looking. All in all a very enjoyable evening.

ETA: Ahem. Apparently it wasn't Leonard Cohen singing. It was still awesome, though!

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Happy Birthday

2010-02-10T18:45:38Z

Happy Birthday, edenfalling! I hope you're having an excellent day. ^_^

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So.

2010-01-30T02:31:25Z

Well, I'm back. Actually, I was back a while ago, but I wanted to write up a long post about how good my trip was, despite problems coming home at the end, and I didn't have the time. Then my grandfather died, and I had even less time.

I knew it was coming. He had prostate cancer, and it had gotten... pretty bad. Anyway, I returned to England for the funeral on Saturday the 23rd of January, the funeral was the following Monday, and I returned to America the day after.

I should write him a better tribute than this, but I really don't have the words. Rest in peace, Grandpa.

25 July 1927 - 10 January 2010

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Christmas!

2009-12-25T20:12:19Z

Happy Christmas, everyone! I'm off to visit family & do vacation-type things, and I won't always have internet access. So if I'm not replying to anything, that's probably why. Sorry, I'll try to catch up later!

^_^

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not dead yet

2009-10-31T05:37:19Z

Wow. It's... been a very long time since I last updated this journal. Um. I'm not actually dead? I haven't even been gone- I just mainly use this account to leave comments and to keep track of various authors via my Reading Page, apparently.

To keep this post from being a complete waste of time, I give you:

3 Things that have made Theodosia happy recently!

1. Embers, by Vathara.
Dragon's fire is not so easily extinguished; when Zuko rediscovers a lost firebending technique, shifting flames can shift the world...
Vathara is one of my favorite authors of all time, and this is one of her best stories, IMHO. It's an ongoing Avatar AU in which Zuko is less of an idiot, Iroh is a Retired Badass, and there is lots of awesome worldbuilding. The fic currently has 12 chapters and 84,103 words, with lots more yet to come. I have to admit, I do the Dance of Fanfic Joy whenever a new chapter alert arrives in my inbox. ^_^

2. Connections, by Sophie3.
HP/Naruto. It was the kind of stupid crazy thing that would happen in one of ero-sensei's novels. But this Potter kid was Sasuke's family, which made him Team 7 family and there was no way in hell they were going to let any murdering brother take that away.
Awesome, awesome, awesome Harry Potter/Naruto crossover fic! A little slow paced, maybe, but everyone is *perfectly* in character. I've read a lot of HP/Naruto crossover fics. A lot of them have been really bad, some have been quite good. But this is the fic I consider to be the gold standard of them all. A work in progress with 32 chapters and 67,320 words.

3. synecdochic posted part 3 of Roll With It, and it was excellent. This was the first real update since December of last year. I know she's been really busy with, oh, building dreamwidth, but I was still ridiculously happy to see it appear on my Reading Page.

And that's all for now! What's made you happy lately?

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good stuff

2009-05-29T02:24:56Z

My family & I saw the new Star Trek movie last Sunday. I know I'm a bit behind the times, but it was AWESOME.

Hung out with L & watched FMA on Wednesday- much fun.

And today I went to B&N after work, and read C.J. Cherryh's new Foreigner book, Conspirator. The amount of love I have for it cannot be fully put into words. I think this might be my favorite book of the series so far.

Now I'm waiting for Sarah Rees Brennan's book The Demon's Lexicon to come out- just five more days...

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work = argh, FMA = yay!

2009-05-23T01:02:18Z

The time between returning home and today was very, very nice. Lots of lazing about in the sunshine with my cats and reading (Terry Pratchett's Nation, finally! also Jaida Jones & Danielle Bennett's Havemercy). Today- not so good. Well, it wasn't bad. I returned to my part time job, where I am a low-level grunt at a major retailer that shall remain nameless. It's better than my previous part time job, anyway. But they had me there for 9 hours today, and argh my feet have forgotten what it's like to spend that much time standing.

In better news, I finally have a firm plan to meet with my best friend L next week to start watching the first season of Fullmetal Alchemist! I've only seen a couple episodes so far, because I kept getting distracted by other shiny stuff. But not this time! L will keep me focused like a very focused thing and soon there will be pretty boys for everyone!

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smiles

2009-05-14T04:11:43Z

I'm home! Parents are happy, brother is unexpectedly sweet, cats are adorable. Good times.

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yet more finals

2009-05-12T21:08:08Z

Just one more final now- General Logic at 9 am tomorrow. That is not going to be anything like fun. But then my mom will arrive to help me pack & I can leave, yay! I helped my roommate move out today- her side of the room is looking strangely bare.

Um. I think I'll be quiet now...

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finals

2009-05-08T19:17:48Z

First final down! Four more to go, and then I can go home. Not that I don't like my college- I do- I'm just so ready for the summer right now. Of course, that just means a different kind of work...

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settling in

2009-05-02T22:59:07Z

Well, I've changed some stylistic stuff. Mainly colors- now instead of the default blue and orange, I have gray, pink, and blue. Not a big change, perhaps, but I like it. I've also added more links to my link list. Does anyone know if it's possible to move the sidebar from the right side of the page to the left side of the page? Or even where I could find that out?

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hello, world.

2009-05-02T02:39:17Z

Hi. My name, for the purposes of the internet, is Theodosia21. I've been going by Theodosia for a while now, but when I tried to set up this journal I found that it was already taken. Thus the addition of semi-random numbers to the end. Anyway, let me introduce myself.

I first discovered fanfiction, and consequently fandom, when searching the internet for more information on Lois McMaster Bujold and her Miles Vorkosigan books. Bujold was, and is, one of my favorite authors of all time. I can't remember precisely what I was looking for, other than, perhaps, some new work of genius that had somehow managed to slip past my attention until that day. In short, however, I found her website, which included, among other things, links to fanfiction based on her works. In my tender innocence, and with a profound lack of anything better to do, I began to read. They were short and generally well written. Not as good as an actual new Bujold book, I thought to myself, but better than nothing.

Then I started "Time Shall Not Mend", by AJ Hall- and found myself blown away. It was simultaneously my first crossover, between the Vorkosigan-verse and the Harry Potter-verse, my first fanfiction epic, and the first time I was introduced to a far more interesting Draco Malfoy and Neville Longbottom than appears in the canon. I finished that story with more speed than sense, just to discover, to my joy, that it was part of a series. I moved on, ravenous.

I will not take the time right now to give ze's series the review it deserves, except to say that it's best to start with "Lust Over Pendle", and that it is, in the words of the author, "a comedy of manners set in the Golden Age detective thriller genre". It is Draco/Neville. It made me believe in Draco/Neville. It also has the best Augusta Longbottom and Narcissa Malfoy I've ever read.

Anyway, after reading everything of AJ Hall's that I could find, I moved on to whatever other Harry Potter fanfics I could get my hands on (mostly on fictionalley, if I remember correctly). Alas, my innocent conviction that surely all Harry Potter fanfics would be of the same stellar quality was soon dashed. For lo, I had discovered badfic, and it was very bad. However, I persevered, and it was not long before I was thoroughly addicted.

That was in the spring of my senior year of high school. I'm now nearly at the end of my junior year of college. Since those starting days, I've spread far and wide from the Harry Potter fandom, though I still return now and then.

I keep a list of my favorite fics on my delicious.com account, The_Virtual_Bookshelf. At the time of me writing this post, I have 1,904 bookmarks there. My most common fandom tags are Harry Potter, Stargate: Atlantis, Naruto, Bandom, Torchwood, Bleach, Final Fantasy 7, Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel, Stargate: SG-1, and Doctor Who. I have many more, though. I'm eclectic like that.

I also have a fanfiction.net page where I keep track of interesting WIPs, Theodosia. Despite fanfiction.net's reputation as the Pit of Voles, I've found a lot of good stuff there. I don't write my own fanfic. I might someday, but I'm not there yet.

I've also spent my time lurking on various author's journals. I left comments sometimes, but I could never be bothered to open my own account. Mainly because I didn't believe I had anything interesting to say. Well, I doubt that's changed, but too much time spent on synecdochic's journal has infected me with the Dreamwidth mania.

So here I am, poking around, trying to figure out my first online journal ever. I've made lots of links in this post, and hopefully I've put it behind a cut, as it's gotten rather long. We'll see if they work.

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first post

2009-05-01T03:03:38Z

*turns on the lights*

*looks around*

Hello?

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