Fanfic Memes
Jan. 22nd, 2018 04:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithTwo closely related fanfic memes, borrowed from a post by calliopes_pen ...
The first one:
If you were asked to pick one scene, one shot, one detail, one moment of some kind out of all the things I've written and say "This, this, for whatever reason, I remember, this is something that struck home with me, that I wanted to keep," what would it be?
And the second:
Quote a bit of my writing at me. Find that one story of mine that you really like, and find a sentence or a paragraph that presses your prose-buttons in the right way, and comment here with it.
calliopes_pen ...The first one:
If you were asked to pick one scene, one shot, one detail, one moment of some kind out of all the things I've written and say "This, this, for whatever reason, I remember, this is something that struck home with me, that I wanted to keep," what would it be?
And the second:
Quote a bit of my writing at me. Find that one story of mine that you really like, and find a sentence or a paragraph that presses your prose-buttons in the right way, and comment here with it.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-22 12:45 pm (UTC)Meme Two: "How am I supposed to find adult footie pajamas without slogging through sites that make me want to bleach my eyeballs?" Phil muttered.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-22 03:44 pm (UTC)This poem is spillover from the June 2016 crowdfunding Creative Jam. It was inspired by a prompt from technoshaman. It also fills the "disempowered" square in my 11-3-15 card for the Disaster Bingo fest. This poem belongs to the Shiv thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.
This microfunded poem is being posted one verse at a time, as donations come in to cover them. The SALE rate is 12.5¢ per line, so $5 will reveal 40 new lines, and so forth. There is a permanent donation button on my profile page, or you can contact me for other arrangements. You can also ask me about the number of lines per verse, if you want to fund a certain number of verses.
So far sponsors include: lone_cat, thnidu, daisiesrockalot, technoshaman, clockworklady
FULLY FUNDED
275 lines, Buy It Now = $34.38
Amount donated = $11
Verses posted = 25 of 78
Amount remaining to fund fully = $23.38
Amount needed to fund next verse = 12.5¢
Amount needed to fund the verse after that = $.50
Warning: There is one bit of racist language, but it's actually a black man talking about someone else's racist perspective.
Vindication of Right
By late afternoon, Shiv had
soothed his jangled nerves with
a combination of Microfyne
and a nicotine sucker.
He lay on his bed, poking through
a file of worksheets that Rosie had
given him on emotional intelligence,
following up their work on feelings.
There was one about his own emotions,
which he didn't much care for; another
about forgiveness, only some of which
actually fit the way he thought or felt;
and one of self-talk, which yeah, he
didn't need to say out loud because
it tended to upset people if he did.
That got Shiv thinking about
the flower-shaped emotion chart
that Rosie had shown him, and how
feelings came in shades, like colors.
He took some of his emotion cards
and started sorting them into sets
of related feelings, then putting
those into order of intensity.
Then he found one of the art exercises
that Dr. G had left for him, a sample page
of character emotions and then a blank one,
where the idea was to draw faces that went
from mild to strong feelings down the line.
Yeah, I can do that, Shiv thought.
It reminded Shiv of the face gauges that
the safety officer had him using earlier,
only this was a lot more fun.
So he drew faces, trying to think of times
when he'd seen someone in that mood.
Sad to desperate, annoyed to wrathful,
shocked to terrorized -- those were easy.
Contented to ecstatic was harder
just because he'd rarely seen
anyone in that good of a mood.
Shiv was trying to remember
Edison's "yay someone is reading
to me" face when the door rattled open.
Mr. Vanburen ducked inside,
shut the door, and leaned against it.
Shiv put away his therapy things
and said, "Now what?"
"How serious were you about
never wanting to see the warden
again?" Mr. Vanburen asked.
"Pretty serious," Shiv said,
as goosebumps began to race
up and down his spine. "What for?"
"Because the cops just went upstairs
to arrest him," said Mr. Vanburen, with
a look so wicked that Shiv couldn't help
recalling all those stories about him and
his jerk brother Joey getting into trouble.
"His preferred victims get a five-minute lead,
everyone else gets four, in case you want
to come see him taken out of here."
Go watch the asshole warden
perpwalked out of his own prison?
Oh hell yes.
"Best hurry if we want to catch
a good spot," said Mr. Vanburen.
"I'm coming," Shiv said as he
scrambled to his feet.
"Dr. G sent a note suggesting that if folks
want to prove the warden wrong for calling you
animals, the best way to do that is give him
a real polite sendoff," Mr. Vanburen said
as he unlocked the door. "That means
no catcalling, spitting, or throwing things.
Do you think you can you do that?"
Shiv hesitated. "I dunno ... I can maybe ..."
he said. "I want to try, though."
"That's good enough for me,"
Mr. Vanburen said, which gave Shiv
a weird feeling in his belly.
The cafeteria was already milling
with people, probably whoever had
setup duties for supper, and it was
rapidly filling with more bodies as
folks poured in through every door.
They melted out of the way when
they saw Shiv, though, floating him
and Mr. Vanburen to the front
just as they were doing with
Ragno and Mr. Bonaventure.
Shiv took a shaky breath,
trying to find the cool that he'd lost
somewhere between his cell and here.
Shit, I don't know if I can do this.
Mr. Vanburen put a steadying hand
on his shoulder and squeezed.
All around them, Shiv could see
signs of people having ditched
their former activities in haste
to catch this opportunity.
A dozen guys were dripping wet
and wrapped only in bathrobes,
clearly fresh from the shower.
Another bunch were sweaty
and panting from the gym.
Verne wore a smock with
colorful smears of ...
Is that fingerpaint?!
Kincade and Sanquez were
front-and-center too, and Shiv
realized they were swiftly sorting
the inmates so that the rowdier guys
got washed to the back of the crowd,
leaving the steadies to make an aisle
clear down the middle of the room
from one door to another.
The guards only had to make
a few substitutions of position,
mostly just to put themselves
forward for crowd control in case
things started to get out of hand.
It was weird for them to trust
the inmates enough to allow this.
Shiv wondered who put them up to it,
if it was Dr. G or Dr. Bloch or both.
He glanced at Mr. Lincoln, amazed
by the man's courage, and the supervisor
gave him a look of cool regard.
It was a powerful thing, trust;
powerful, and terrifying, Shiv realized.
Not many of the Peckerwoods
were visible, he noticed, probably
because a bunch of them had tried
to hide their drugs and gotten caught.
The private wing was full up and they
wouldn't have had time to earn back
the option of leaving it on occasion.
Serves them right, he thought smugly.
He had no admiration for idiots.
The buzz and clack of the doors
drew everyone's attention.
"Stand up straight, now,"
Mr. Vanburen whispered.
"Here they come."
Two police officers pushed
the doors wide open, leading
the warden -- handcuffed! --
between them as they marched
down the rows of guards and inmates.
Shiv flinched, at first, and then
the insults boiled up behind his teeth.
But then he remembered something
Boss White had said before meeting
with a particularly rude contact:
White man wants a jungle nigger,
wants to see me act like a savage
so he can think he's better than me.
I show up with a suit and a 'Good day,'
that means I done won this round
before he can open his mouth.
He had, too, and it wrongfooted
the white man so much that they
had gotten the upper hand in
the whole negotiation, come out
with a better deal than Shiv
would have dreamed possible.
So Shiv straightened his back
and lifted his chin and generally
tried to act like he did when he was
representing his boss, even if he
was wearing stupid zebra stripes
instead of his company clothes.
Most of the other guys
were doing the same thing.
Maybe it meant something.
There were only a few jeers
from the back, instantly squashed
by the neighboring inmates before
the rear guards could even get there.
It's just like a bosses' meeting,
Shiv told himself. I've done that,
I can do this too. Somehow.
He might be ECR Boy on the inside,
but he could keep his cool on the outside.
The former warden was seething.
"You did this, you lying little punk!"
he snapped as he drew even with Shiv.
"My lawyer will hang you out to dry.
You must be just eating it up. What
do you have to say for yourself?"
Shiv looked him in the eye.
"Have a nice day," he said evenly.
Mr. Vanburen's hand twitched.
After the warden passed by them,
Shiv snuck a glance sideways and saw
the guard's lips pressed into a thin line.
I pushed it too far, Shiv worried,
biting his lip and wishing for a smoke.
It was still gratifying to see the warden
so thoroughly disempowered, though.
Only after the far doors had closed
behind the perpwalk party did
Mr. Vanburen double over,
whooping with laughter.
Verne clapped Shiv on the back
and said, "You sure got him, Shiv."
The other inmates looked thrilled, too.
"That right there was a thing of beauty,
which I will remember for the rest of my life,"
Mr. Vanburen said when he could talk again.
Indeed it was, a thing of beauty. *mist* Thank you.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-22 07:43 pm (UTC)The scene where Damask are trying to stop Farce for the first time.
Yay!
Date: 2018-01-22 08:53 pm (UTC)Thoughts
Date: 2018-01-22 09:37 pm (UTC)Yay!
>> And I love your link posts. I'm always curious as to what I might learn when I open them.<<
I love introducing people to new things. :D
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-22 09:39 pm (UTC)2. "Yellow fluff goes, Mew! Mew!" Yeah. Hulk with fluffs is adorable, and this line speaks to child me.
Thoughts
Date: 2018-01-22 09:40 pm (UTC):D
>> There's lots of kick-assery, and lots of fluff, out there. You've written some of one, and a fair bit more of rather high quality of the other. Seeing some arrogant bastard get theirs *without* needing their earthly remains to be scraped up for the rubbish bin? <<
Ah well, I'm a sadist. Dying is easy. Living with past failures is harder.
>> RARE. Rare like a blue moon, or a blue steak, or a blue diamond. And storytelling *gold*. <<
I'm glad you found this so gratifying.
Thank you!
Date: 2018-01-22 09:43 pm (UTC)Wow, that's quite a compliment. I love writing in dialect. I think it's important to use a character's own words to show their worldview.
>> 2. "Yellow fluff goes, Mew! Mew!" Yeah. Hulk with fluffs is adorable, and this line speaks to child me.<<
I confess to raiding my childhood memories of kittens for that scene.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2018-01-22 10:05 pm (UTC)I should know.
Which is precisely why I *don't* wish killin' on people like Kalanick, Weinstein, Lord Moldymort, et al... killin's too good fer'em.
Besides, if they stay here and learn their consarn lesson, they won't be inflicting their karmic bullshit on the NEXT generation...
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-22 10:22 pm (UTC)*epiphany* I don't necessarily think in Standard $anyhumanlanguage, or even dialectical, all the time. It's way too easy for me to think in code, or Aviation English (which is, while composed necessarily of English words, ....... very machine-code-like. )
'sfunny, though, I went to get the backstory and "Hide and Seek" is.... 57 parts?! Ysabet, you wrote another novel... :) (And that one's actually prose! Mostly....)
The thing about LIFC is that you get the voicings right... and the things that aren't canon? damn well should be.
But then, if ever there was an AU I wanted SO HARD to live in, it's yours.
Thoughts
Date: 2018-01-22 10:34 pm (UTC)I have known a number of folks who think in code or code-like registers.
>> 'sfunny, though, I went to get the backstory and "Hide and Seek" is.... 57 parts?! Ysabet, you wrote another novel... :) (And that one's actually prose! Mostly....) <<
Yeah, I oopsed a book again.
>> The thing about LIFC is that you get the voicings right... and the things that aren't canon? damn well should be. <<
Aw, shucks.
>> But then, if ever there was an AU I wanted SO HARD to live in, it's yours.<<
One of my leading requests for people wishing they had a certain character in their lives is for Uncle Phil.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2018-01-22 10:58 pm (UTC)Dammit, just the idea that Alicia did that is making me cry.
Oh, and the go-for-broke wish? Teleporters. You'd have to build a room on the end of your house. Actually, two rooms, one for the cuddle piles. If we had teleporters, we could make that happen in a couple of dry weekends. :)
Something tells me that in that world you're a journalist, not an author. Somebody like Helen Thomas, who wasn't afraid to ask tough questions of men in power.
And that the cuddle piles tended to happen whether you were at home or not, much like the parties at the Starport. :)
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2018-01-23 02:29 am (UTC)Every time I see a sign that says "Tastee" I am disappointed that the second word is "Freeze" instead of "Shack."
>>Dammit, just the idea that Alicia did that is making me cry. <<
*hankie*
>> Oh, and the go-for-broke wish? Teleporters. You'd have to build a room on the end of your house. Actually, two rooms, one for the cuddle piles. If we had teleporters, we could make that happen in a couple of dry weekends. :) <<
LOL yes.
Me: "We're taking the car to the park, you wanna come?"
Teleporter: "Did you just invite me on a car ride?"
Me: "Well yeah, somebody else already took the van to get more groceries."
*am suddenly plastered with teleporters*
>> Something tells me that in that world you're a journalist, not an author. Somebody like Helen Thomas, who wasn't afraid to ask tough questions of men in power. <<
All things are possible. :D
>> And that the cuddle piles tended to happen whether you were at home or not, much like the parties at the Starport. :) <<
Roving cuddle pile. \o/
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2018-01-23 04:17 am (UTC)Thanks.
Roving cuddle pile. \o/
Did I mention I like the way you think? ;)
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2018-01-23 08:43 am (UTC)Re: Thoughts
Date: 2018-01-23 01:49 pm (UTC)