Off the prompt "cuddles."

I'm visiting stariceling for the weekend and have gotten her hooked on both Leverage and Echo Bazaar (go me). In any case, watching the first season of Leverage in a gulp has reminded me of the two main romantic sets I want enormously that no one has written for me:

Parker/Maggie. Parker likes to smell Maggie. And pet her. And after hanging out with the gang for more than five minutes Maggie realizes a) that Parker isn't being creepy per se, she just doesn't have very normal social functioning and b) it will fuck with Nate's head so much, not to mention the rest of them, honestly, going "Parker? And sex? How?!??" if Maggie goes along with, nay, even returns or escalates, the sniffing and petting.

Also: Parker/Sophie/BASE-jumping. The show has frankly given me just enough to whet my appetite and no enough to say, make a vid just of them leaping of buildings together.

Furthermore, I am astounded that no one is writing the trainwreck I want from Dresden Files fic. Actually, I'm kind of astounded no one is writing certain trainwrecks I thought might actually have some traction in Dresden Files fandom, but perhaps the ao3.org community is too mature for the kind of hilarious badfic drama I want, which is sad, because frankly the thing that sucked me into Dresden Files canon in the first place is the hilarious badfic drama, which has eventually transcended to Lord King Bad Fic, and why would you want your actual fanfic to be more serious and considered than your source material? I ask you. Perhaps I should go check Pit of Voles. *checks* Damn it, that was a bust. There were only 8 stories out of 588 that even listed Molly as a (main? how does that work now?) character. Wow, okay, you guys, I WENT TO PIT OF VOLES FOR MY BADFIC NEEDS and it disappointed. What is the world coming to?

People. I want Molly/Thomas. I think it is hilarious, terrible, and doomed, but I also think that her reaction to ( I think this was in Changes? Look, I read all the books in about 5 minutes, they run together a little. )

Side note: Harry's head exploding repeatedly is an important feature of most of the fic I want. FYI.

I have this theory that "true love" is kind of a misnomer for what troubles White Court vamps, because it pisses me off that Thomas is all blithely "oh yeah most people never know true love, especially rich bitches" re working as a stylist. I think it's actually "I would die for you/you would die for me" that triggers the problem, and most people, you know, people not living in close vicinity to Harry Dresden, live their lives without getting into life-or-death situations and finding out if they ever really would. But so: ( back to the Changes spoilers )


*laugh* When I was failing to unpack all of this DEEP REASONING and just told grey_bard that Thomas/Molly leads to Molly/Justine, she said, "Not Thomas/Molly/Justine? Because the true Thomas OTP is Thomas/Thomas's angst?" WHICH IS TOTALLY TRUE. Thomas/Thomas's angst is so pure. *cackle*

I would also talk about niqaeli and my plotbunnies about Molly's detailed plan, with many activities, for her and Ramirez popping each other's cherries, or about how we want Molly to out Harry as bisexual to himself and break his brain repeatedly, or how I think it would be awesome to return the favor and break Molly's brain for once when Harry finds himself in a threesome with Michael and Charity--

I would talk about all of these things in more detail but I am sure I have already said enough to make me deeply unpopular in Dresden Files fandom based on what fic is actually getting written, so I'll save my breath. Also I'm hungry.

I maintain that I am still gafiated despite spewing my thoughts and desires at dreamwidth, therefore I reserve the right to ignore any and all comments, especially if they annoy me. Or I might just get bitchy. Fair warning.

Nate is such a liar. Sober thief, whatEVAR....

I want to make a vid at Vividcon. I was toying with one idea but... I decided the one idea was too much emotional work, primarily. So I'm pulling up other items on the burner and putting it to a vote. I don't swear to abide by the vote but you know, might influence me.

I appear to have consumed two seasons of Leverage this weekend and started on season 3.

Nate: your emo is boring. Also, you're dragging Sophie down with you.

Sophie: JUMP OFF MORE BUILDINGS WITH PARKER, IT IS HOT.

Eliot has the best noodle incident flashbacks. Also I *smish* Hardison's geeky little heart. And I LOVE PARKER OMG.

I just watched an episode where as they make their escape, mocking the mark, Sophie tosses her hair. And then Eliot tosses his hair. YES ELIOT YOU'RE PRETTY TOO (and what makes you attractive to me is that you think you are *G*).

This is a very silly show. BWAHAHAHAH.

I don't watch this dude's show, but the fact that he seems to have his head out of his ass about fanfiction makes me more likely to:

1.) I think fanfic is the sign of a healthy show. Here's what it boils down to: you're telling me that in today's crowded media space, our show made someone love it so much they take time out of their own life to talk about it? Holy. Crap.

To be fair, I have a somewhat different attitude toward media/fans than most people. I think what TV/corporate media had wrong for a long time was how they understood the idea of a "water cooler show." They saw it as making the audience talk about their show, on their terms. So any fan-created media is them losing control of their material. I see this more as the natural evolution of culture in a shared digital age. I will be blunt -- other than the satisfaction of our own creative urges (and all that entails: the quest for perfection, artistry, craft, etc), our job in media is to give you stuff to talk about in your conversations, to integrate into your social circle in whatever way you see fit. I doubt that's TNT's official stance, btw, but they are much cooler about this stuff than most companies.

2.) As far as "borrowing" our characters -- to paraphrase Alan Moore, they didn't go anywhere. There they are, sitting right up on the shelf. Waiting for us to let them loose again. Besides, how many people read a fanfic story? A couple hundred, tops? We have, on average 3.5 million viewers, well into the 4 million range when you get the DVR numbers in. I just don't see someone taking control of our Ideaspace through sheer force of Slashfic.

Sure, a lot of fanfic is crap. Of course it's crap. It's written by people who are not professional writers. If I paint, what I paint is crap. Does that mean I should give up painting and displaying stuff in my neighborhood art show?

3.) Is fanfic flattery? Again, depends on how you define flattery. If someone's writing fanfic with intention of currying favor for some ... er, frankly unguessable benefit, then they're really engaged in an exercise in futility. If you mean flattery as in: it's flattering to think someone is so entertained by our work that it inspires them to talk about it and create around it, then aces.

4.) Most writers and actors don't feel this way. Some, including writers I both like personally and greatly admire, hate the idea of fanfic.

Look, end of day, you should always be trying to create your own material. But fanfic, etc, is a different process than original creation -- which I think is the source of a lot of the controversy.

People who do original creations assume the fan is taking some sort of unearned ownership, somehow implying their act is the same/as difficult as the original act of creation. Which, of course, tees them off (doesn't tee me off, but I'm a very relaxed and often drunk guy).

And some fanfic humans are under the impression that creating fanfic is the same creative process as creating original material -- and are sometimes frustrated that they're not accorded the same respect as the original creators. That's also wrong. Fanfic to me is spiritually much closer to the fan-created music videos.

The basic rule I follow here is one I learned in stand-up comedy: Always punch UP. I am a relatively successful typing human whose words are physically produced using millions of dollars and is distributed nationally by a massive billion dollar corporation to millions of people. Exactly how is a free web page with a 1000 word story about Eliot and Hardison fighting a trans-dimensional incursion of Elves hurting my brand, exactly?

Tell you what -- if some fanfic writer is so good they manage to amass a million-person audience with their web-distributed free stories using my characters, I am going to consider that evolution in action and hire that bastard. Or, at the very least, urge them to go create their own show. But odds are it ain't gonna happen. And that's okay. We write for different reasons.