Rather a Story

Turns out I can't transfer my photo ops unless I don't go to the convention at all for JiB Con. I asked the staff to be sure, and got capslocked at for my pains. Seriously, who does that in official correspondence? I was courteous in my inquiry, and got a response that was bordering on rude, though I suppose some of that can be attributed to lack of familiarity with the English language.

There are courses and tutorials on how to be polite in official correspondence. I really wish more people would take them and take the lessons to heart.

I'm off to go find something else to do so I don't dwell on this and have it make my afternoon unpleasant.

Dear supernaturalfic,

I swear to God, it is easier to get Top Secret Security clearance for the RCMP than to fucking get an entry approved for posting in your community. I should know, because I have done both and only succeeded at the former!

Christ on a cracker. I did everything you wanted and yet ONE detail gets me rejected? How many more flaming hoops do I need to jump through?

Screw you, you are migraine-inducing.

Everyone has their pet peeves, right? I have many.

The latest one to surface, and it's a recurring problem, but it's been twice in a couple of days now, and I'm officially peeved.

Vampires.

Vampires in pre-series stories.

Remember "Dead Man's Blood?" The boys and John are convinced vampires don't exist/are extinct right up until first season.

Even well-written stories get on my nerves, unless they're explicitly stated to be AU.

It's marring my enjoyment of those fics, which is really too bad. I need to learn to overlook it when they're well-written, I guess. But still. Gnarr.

Holy crap.

Yet another snide suggestion of plagiarism. On the plus side, they keep suggesting I'm plagiarizing talented authors (in this case kroki_refur), so I guess they think the writing is good?

*shakes head*

It's a crack!fic, people! It's not meant to make sense, it was written off-the-cuff, and just because an author and I have ONE plot element in common does NOT make my work plagiarized!

GAH.

*stabbity*

I am renaming my "fanfiction.net" tag to "pit of voles" now, just out of spite.

Dear fanfic writers:

peak: noun. 1. the pointed top of a mountain or ridge.
2. a mountain with a pointed summit.
3. the pointed top of anything.
4. the highest or most important point or level: the peak of her political career.
5. the maximum point, degree, or volume of anything: Oil prices reached their peak last year.

peek: verb. 1. to look or glance quickly or furtively, esp. through a small opening or from a concealed location; peep; peer.
noun. 2. a quick or furtive look or glance; peep.

pique: verb. 1. to affect with sharp irritation and resentment, esp. by some wound to pride: She was greatly piqued when they refused her invitation.
2. to wound (the pride, vanity, etc.).
3. to excite (interest, curiosity, etc.): Her curiosity was piqued by the gossip.
4. to arouse an emotion or provoke to action: to pique someone to answer a challenge.
noun. 5. a feeling of irritation or resentment, as from a wound to pride or self-esteem: to be in a pique.


PLEASE TO BE LEARNING THESE WORDS AND USING THEM CORRECTLY. YOU ARE DRIVING ME NUTS!

I'm perplexed. Amused and a little appalled, but mostly perplexed.

Maybe it's because I'm still sort of new to fandom? I've been around for about seven months or so.

First off, I will admit to caving and going to poke at the anon meme after there was controversy about one of the BigBang fics. I'm not touching on that since many, many people have said what needs to be said more than eloquently.

No, what I stumbled across, and have since seen more than a few times on my flist, is that apparently there is wank about the deancasbigbang. It appears that some people (hard to tell how many since they're all anonymous) have decided that Dean/Cas (or Dean & Cas) fen are elitist princesses who want to segregate the fandom by ships.

Really, fandom? Seriously?

I'm participating in the spn_j2_bigbang this year. I was super excited when I saw announcements go up, and I signed up and wrote (and angsted at length here about it). Then later on there was an announcement for the first ever deancasbigbang and I got all excited about that too! I don't really ship Dean/Cas, but I had an idea for a Dean & Cas fic (yes, it's still going to be gen) and thought it would be the perfect opportunity to write it.

It never even occurred to me that a Dean/Cas BigBang was somehow infringing on the non-D/C people in fandom. All I saw was an opportunity to write.

Someone (anonymous, of course) wrote that they were being denied an opportunity to write their non-D/C fic and were being discriminated against because they shipped something else.

...

Umm. WHAT? Dude, WRITE IT ANYWAY. If you have a long!fic to write that isn't Dean/Cas, then just write it and post it! Why is that hard? If you want art for your fic (and who wouldn't?), then hit up your flist or some of the comms. Maybe you'll luck out and someone will produce art for you.


I'm actually kind of sad at the idea that, just because a group of people got all cranked up and excited about their ship/pairing/whatever, another group of people felt that this was somehow designed to exclude them/make them feel bad. I get all cranked up and excited about SO MANY THINGS about the Show, and never once have my thoughts even veered close to: "That'll show those $fans what for!"

Sheesh.

Also, nyoka has revealed to me that multi-shippers are like bisexuals and unicorns: we don't exist. As a result, I am halfway tempted to write an orgy fic involving every single main and recurring character from the show, just to watch people's heads explode. You're all VERY LUCKY that I have yet to muster up the courage to write really explicit porn. ;)

I am *thisclose* to abandoning ff.net entirely. It's one thing to have people tell me I don't know what I'm doing, or to miss the point of a fic. It's another thing entirely to be accused of plagiarism, especially when the person won't even have the decency to leave a reply link.

On the plus side, they accused me of plagiarizing wave_obscura, or at least of copying her writing style, so I guess I'm in good company.

Still, there is very little that is designed to make me see red that fast.

I'd probably be less cranky if I hadn't had a migraine since yesterday (seriously, I've had more in the past few months than in the last three years combined, it's getting annoying).

Why, oh why, am I still watching 24?

WHY?

The show hasn't been good since Season 3. In fact, I found Seasons 5 so very horrifically violent that I put off watching Seasons 6 and 7 for a very long time.

I feel like a battered wife*. "Oh, baby, I know you don't mean to hurt me. Maybe this time it'll be different!"

Oy.

The show has been a parody of itself for a long time. Here I was telling myself this year that at least Jack Bauer hadn't ripped out a man's jugular with his teeth (I only wish I was kidding about that), but this time around he actually eviscerated someone after torturing them.

Umm. No.

I really hope this is the last season. It's a train wreck, and yet I can't look away. Somebody put us both out of our misery, please!





*I am being flippant here, but rest assured that I take spousal abuse very seriously. I work for the police, and in no way do I think that domestic violence in any way, shape or form should be condoned.

Dear Fan,

It's very nice of you to review my stories. From the looks of it, you might even be a BNF, although it's kind of hard to tell. Certainly you're prolific, and I've seen your name bandied about fandom since I joined. It's great that you took the time to review my story on fanfiction.net, really and truly.

That being said, telling me basically that "h/c: ur doin it wrong" is a little silly, given that my story is very clearly labeled as horror, and not h/c.

I get that you're primarily a h/c writer, and hey, I've totally enjoyed your stories too. If h/c is what you're looking for, then please, by all means, read the stories I've written that are labeled as such. If you want h/c, then reading the "horror" story is not going to work out for you.

Love,

Me