Embryo of Philosophy

Author: Bitterfig

Title: The Ghost Inside

Fandom: Sweeney Todd

Pairing: Johanna (Benjamin)/Anthony

Summary: Three years have passed since the events of Sweeney Todd. Passing as a boy, Johanna is now called Benjamin. She and Anthony are sailors together. When Anthony is accused of murdering the Captain of the vessel they’re sailing on it falls to Benjamin to save him.

Beta Reader: Fedink

Word Count: 4106

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: Some violence and sexuality.

Author’s Note: The lyrics to “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” and “Green Finch and Linnet Bird” are by the brilliant Stephen Sondheim.

Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction. Any illegal acts taking place within that fiction are NOT condoned by the author. Depictions of any questionable, illegal, or potentially illegal activity in said fiction does not mean that I condone, promote, support, participate in, or approve of said activity. I grasp the distinction between fiction and reality and trust that readers will do the same. I do not profit from the fan fiction I write, and all rights to the characters remain firmly in the hands of their creator.

( The Ghost Inside )

~ Music video for Vienna Teng's "Gravity."
~ Music video for Dave Matthews' "Gravedigger." (WARNING: Video may be triggery.)
~ Music video for Lamb's "Gorecki."
~ The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (?)
~ Moulin Rouge! (forevermore, possibly)
~ Anyband again (add soccerball soldiers and chair-dancing soldier to character list)
~ Ten Inch Hero (love, seriously)
~ Bride of the Water God (I thought someone else might cover it this year, but nope)
~ CSJH forever
~ I should perhaps add Chae Yeon to Asian solo artists, if she's not in there already. I'm sure BoA is, but I'll double-check.
~ If we can do music videos, does that mean I could nominate "Purple Line," in which DBSK are incubi high class rentboys in a futuristic world? Ooh! Bae Seul Gi's "Tomboy!"

Accomplished:

~ Draft of second Nuna Exchange story, for which I had to Frankenstein the first one, so I guess I don't have a spare pinch hit story anymore.

~ Started drafting Master Fic List post shootmenow.

~ Yuletide Sign-ups Are Open! I did my preliminary sign-up. Preliminary because I need the visual of the sign-up confirmation email to see some of the combinations of characters for which I inadvertently signed up. I'm one of those writers who tries very hard to accommodate the optional details, so it's best for me to fill out my sign-up in such a way as to avoid potential sexual pairings that would make me take up heavy drinking.

Speaking of Yuletide, two things:

Anyband got accidentally categorized as "RPF" in the final list of available fandoms. As one of two people who nominated it, my interest is actually in the fictional world and characters presented in the cf itself, and I've clarified that in my Dear Yuletide letter. So if you're considering requesting or offering this fandom, know that it's not intended to be RPF.

There's a limit of requesting and offering up to four characters maximum in any given fandom, and the way to get around that in terms of offering still does not allow one to offer, say, a fivesome, so, uh, if you plan to request Chaotic Koreans, it might be good to just pick your favorite and then in details specify if you want the others involved and also involved, *ahem.* But you didn't hear that from me, because I would never give away a fandom I might perhaps have signed up to write, nooo.

Also, did I mention musesfool is conducting a poll to find out if there's enough interest to run a Dark Angel fic exchange? Because she is. We'd like to get at least ten people playing, but no more than fifty, so if you'd like to participate, fill out the poll!

( Prompts W-Z, Crossovers, RPF )

( Prompts Q-V )

( Prompt K-P )

( Prompts E-J )

Putting this here now that I've confirmed the fandoms I want made the final cut, so I can point to it in my sign-up form.

Dear Yule Goat*,

First of all, I like you already for the fandom or fandoms we share, and I want to thank you so much for signing up to write one of my fandoms. You rock just for that! If you have been hanging out around the yuletide comm, you might have noticed me talking up Anyband and Moulin Rouge. Do not freak out if neither of those are the fandom on which we were matched. Anyband is my gimme fandom this year, so I wanted to give people access to it and explain some of what I loved about it. The eligibility of Moulin Rouge was in dispute, so I was overjoyed when it was deemed eligible. But CSJH is my carryover request from last year, so I would be really delighted to get fic in that one, and Ten Inch Hero fast established its place as a favorite movie, so fic for that would also be awesome like you wouldn't believe.

Like last year, my requests this year seem to have fallen into two categories: fandoms with a focus on female relationships, and fandoms with speculative elements. Well, and the theme that music will save your life, even Ten Inch Hero has a carefully chosen soundtrack. I'd broaden it to art of any kind saving your life, and call it good. Despite the heavy focus on music, though, please do not write songfic of any kind. The characters quoting a few lyrics at each other is okay, but please don't have them quote entire songs to each other, and please don't include song lyrics in the narrative as a substitute for relationship exploration or character insight.

( Details for my requests, including Anyband, CSJH, Ten Inch Hero, and Moulin Rouge )

Most importantly, write what gets you excited. Your enthusiasm will shine through in the story, and that will make it a better gift for me.

Leaving out tamales and cocoa with chile,

Rana

*I'm Scandinavian hyphenate, so the Yule Goat is, in fact, in my tradition and ancestral cultures to use, as tamales and Mesoamerican cocoa are in my environmental culture.

Welcome to Round Nine of Porn Battle! This will run until midnight EST on November 11th. Please remember to post the prompt as the subject title of your post, and if the story exceeds the length of one post, make the second as a reply to the first part. Happy porning!

( Prompts 0-9, Symbols, A-D )

musesfool has posted a poll to gauge interest in a small Dark Angel fic exchange (capping participation at fifty people, but we're both betting the numbers will be much, much smaller than that). Timing and format of the challenge are answered in the poll post, so check it out if you were sad to see DA is ineligible for yuletide, and would be down with adding to the pool of stories via an exchange.

We're not advertising in the comms, because we don't want this to get huge, but feel free to let individuals know that you think might have an interest in participating.

Thank y'all so much for all the great prompts!

Now I need to finish putting them in order, then I'll send them over to be posted.

See you soon!

Yesterday, I wrote a draft of my nuna_fanworks fic exchange story, but I decided I wasn't quite satisfied with how it met my prompt(s), so I started over. I guess that means I have an extra in case someone needs a pinch hit that matches the pairing (OT5 is axiomatic, but that don't mean it's always explicit), provided I manage to finish the new draft. Possibly I will, though the current scene is frustrating me.

After losing all the in-progress files for updating my website in the External Hard Drive Crash of Aught Nine, I have even less motivation than usual to continue the project (also, I would have to comb back through my LJ to see which stories I don't still have on the list as needing to be coded, but that aren't already on the site, and then comb through the site looking for the files I was fixing while updating, and in short, I am the bad example and object lesson of why you should not do huge updates about once a year instead of little updates every few months, and let that be a lesson to you all). I have pondered creating a Fic Master List in my DW account as a temporary fix while I pep talk myself into getting back on the wagon to update the site, but that would be even more extra work, and extra work and me are clearly unmixy things. Also, not all of my stories were ever on my LJ, to be imported to my DW, and I'd have to decide if I wanted to do backdated posts to get them in there, or just point people at the site as it stands and say, "Older stories can be found here." Thoughts? Y'all are the ones who have to use whatever system I come up with; I just write the things.

Somebody (not me, and not musesfool, since she gave us Remix Redux and is sort of set for Contributing to Fandom for life) should look into creating a Dark Angel fic exchange. I'd so totally be on board for that, not least because it would give me something to trick my brain into finishing some of these WsIP. Of course, it would only work if I could specify the characters and pairings I will and won't write, because I don't write Ames White at all (okay, look, he is not even creepily fascinating when you spent most of your life going to church with hundreds of his pod buddies, got it? And I have Opinions about his popularity in the fandom and what it says about unexamined racism and misogyny, but that's a rant I'll save for when I'm feeling like blowing things up), and I do not write Logan having sex. Ever. With anyone. So yeah, if you can specify characters and pairings to offer, that should happen.

Is it Yuletide yet?

How about now?

Now?

If you are signed up for yuletide and are following the community, you probably already know both about the idea to address detail-expanding request letters to the Yule Goat, and the rather rudely-worded anonymous objections to same. Anonymous did not bother to identify hirself as either Scandinavian or Scandinavian hyphenate, and declared the concept of addressing one's letter to the Yule Goat as universally offensive.

I am here to tell you, that assertion is factually incorrect. As a Scandinavian hyphenate, the Yule Goat is part of my cultural heritage (a related heritage to the one from which we get Yuletide, in fact), and I am personally rather tickled at the passing of the concept into the wider Yuletide community's consciousness. Everyone, of course, must determine for themselves if they are comfortable using the term, and I cannot speak for every Scandinavian hyphenate (or any Scandinavian) any more than can anonymous. For myself, I will be using Yule Goat, because now I can be fairly certain my author will know what the term means, and, very importantly, I can't appropriate what's mine. Really, I'm not quite sure how to feel about anonymous' implicit assumption that no actual Scandinavians or Scandinavian hyphenates might be taking part in Yuletide, therefore the term Yule Goat is absolutely inappropriate for any Yuletider to use, but uh, they'd be wrong.

After several years of not cooking, I’ve been getting back into it lately.  I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I have people to cook for.  In Chicago I was pretty much on my own and limited my culinary activities to making myself salads.  Now however, I have my grandmother and parents in close proximity and willing to eat whatever I prepare. 

 

My mother writes and self-publishes books about local history.  She’s planning a party in about two weeks to thank the people who helped her on her latest book.  Since she doesn’t like cooking and I do I’m going to be doing a lot of the food preparation.  The tea I went to on Halloween gave me some great ideas (glazed pumpkin scones, walnut bread with cream cheese and apple slices, pumpkin pie meringues) and I’ve also been watching Food Network for inspiration.

 

Last night I was watching a Halloween themed “Horror Cake Challenge” and I was surprised to see a familiar face.  One of the competing chefs was Michelle Garcia from Bleeding Heart Bakery.  Bleeding Heart is a funky organic bakery in Chicago.  They were originally located in the Ukrainian Village neighborhood right down the street from my sister’s place then a couple years ago they moved to Damen and Belmont, only a couple blocks from the Whole Foods where I worked.  Michelle occasionally came into the market.  She was easy to recognize with her pink dreadlocks and prominent tattoos of mixing bowls and egg beaters.  Unfortunately Michelle didn’t win the Challenge or the $10,000 prize but I always considered her to be a local celebrity of my Chicago days so it was ever so cool to see her on national TV. 

My parents and I went to a literary high tea with a Halloween theme yesterday. 

 

It was held at a church in Jordanville, a small town about 45 minutes from our home.  It started off with tea and a course of all different kinds of little sandwiches, and then a story was read a loud.  After that there was more tea and a course of scones.  This was followed by two more stories and finally a dessert course. 

 

The first story read was “The Most Haunted House” from Spooks of the Valley edited by Louis C. Jones, a legendary folklorist in our area who put together several books of local ghost stories he collected.  The second story was Shirley Jackson’s always chilling “The Lottery” and the final story was Roald Dahl’s darkly humorous “Lamb to the Slaughter”. 

 

I admit I was a little disappointed that only the first story dealt with supernatural horror but still, it was quite an enjoyable and unusual way to celebrate one of my favorite holidays.  Being me I didn’t eat anything but it was interesting to see all the different things that were served and I got some ideas for things to make for the book release party my mother holding later this month. 

I’ve deeply drawn to the films of Lars Von Tier. There’s something about his worldview that validates the pessimism about human nature that I feel as a chronic depressive. Stephan Rylance’s review of Von Tier’s lastest movie, AntiChrist, really clarified this aspect of Von Tier’s work for me.

The Agonies of an Antichrist by Stephan Rylance

On the liter side is “Truly, Truly Outragous”, an article on Samantha Newark who was the speaking voice of Jem (Britta Phillips was her singing voice) on the 1980’s cartoon series Jem and the Holograms. Jem was a great show and the interview addresses it’s gay appeal and even mentions fan fiction.

Truly, Truly Outrageous by Noah Michelson

During August and September when I was still working at the supermarket I developed a daily after work ritual—I’d put on the soundtrack to Inglourios Basterds and polish off an entire bottle of wine while playing Farmville on Facebook. It’s only been a little more than a month but I already feel a combination of horror and deep nostalgia for that time in my life. The soundtrack however I have only enthusiasm for. It was recently posted on The American Nightmare, a music blog I sometimes follow and I would strongly recommend it.

Inglorious Basterds Soundtrack at The American Nightmare

(updated 10:28am: some fandoms don't need entire names)
(Updated 5:35am Nov 2: Sorry, me + muscle relaxants = x_x)

Couple of things to read before you post:

1) PLEASE spell out your fandom completely and characters correctly. There's a very good chance I won't know them.

2) PLEASE use proper capitalization and number notation (roman numerals for the most part).

Things that don't conform to the above will make me cranky, and you will likely end up with your prompts ignored.

I will stop taking prompts after I wake up Wednesday November 4th, which is usually 5:30am-ish EDT. Then they'll be sorted and posted by the other co-mod for you to write on.

Thanks!

I have just re-watched Moulin Rouge in all its steampunk Orphean glory (Satine is both Eurydice and Persephone; red is for pomegranates). So that's one fandom prepared for Yuletide. Preliminary offered list is 18 fandoms. Subtractions may happen, additions are unlikely. I used to try to beat myself by one added fandom each year. Now I figure, if I'm offering more than I'm asking, and what I'm offering is what it would be a gift to myself to write, then it's all good.

No trick-or-treaters in the new neighborhood, and most of the houses on our block are dark. Kinda creepy.

Happy All Hallow's Eve, y'all. I figure the Yami boys are an appropriate choice.

Since I'm making Anyband my gimme fandom for yuletide this year, I thought it would be a good idea to write up a bit of a pimping post for it, as well as link to the cf (commercial, basically) on youtube. The uncut cf is still under nine and a half minutes long, and while I'll be providing some background on the performers in this post, you really don't need to know much beyond what's in the cf itself to write for the fandom. This is just in case you want more information for grounding purposes.

Anyband is part of the Anycall series of cfs put out by Samsung for their cellphone called, appropriately enough, Anycall. The Anycall series takes various Korean entertainment celebrities and puts them together in interesting configurations for mini-stories that usually run about five to nine minutes and then get chopped into thirty to forty five second fragments for airing on TV and commercial websites. In the case of Anyband, those celebrities are BoA, an insanely popular female pop music soloist who recently debuted in the U.S. (at the Gay Pride Festival in San Francisco, if I remember correctly), Xiah Junsu, member of the also-insanely popular male acapella (this is not all they do, but it's significant they can and do sing live unaccompanied and sound awesome doing it) quintet, Dong Bang Shin Ki aka TVXQ (internationally), Tablo, member of the ridiculously popular male rap group, Epik High, and Jin Bora, female jazz pianist. The premise of the cf is that the four, close friends since grade school, fight an oppressive military regime via the revolutionary medium of pop music (though they dress punk), using their Anycall cellphones to get the signal out, since the regime controls the technology-based information network. The cf was filmed in Brazil, I believe specifically Rio de Janeiro, and the oppressive military regime featured is derivative of works like Fahrenheit 451, 1984, and Brave New World in ways not seen since Equilibrium, though of course minus the drug use (hey, kids could see this!).

So, umm. Derivative, industrial, near-future dystopia and pop music in the service of selling a cellphone. Sounds like a winner, don't it? Well, surprisingly, it is. Of course, it helps if you are already a fan of any or all of the four performers involved. So let me focus on them for a bit.

Actually, first, let me show you the cf. Because if you can't watch it without wanting to stab your eyes out, or listen to it without wanting to shatter your own eardrums, then it doesn't matter how much I talk it up, it's not going to work for you. The songs are in Korean and English, as is what little dialogue there is, but the text of street signs and such is English. I've got links to English translations of the songs later in this post.

( Cut for embedded videos, fangirling, and longass nattering about singers and musicians )

Also, I mentioned translations of the songs that appear in the cf, since that's pretty much all the dialogue you get. I can't vouch for the accuracy of the following, since I neither speak Korean nor read Hangul, but this way, you'll have as much of the sense of the meanings as I do. Also, I am putting these under a separate cut, so if you already know and love the cf, but are curious about the translations, you can skip right down to this bit.

( Translations of the Anyband songs from the cf. )

And that, folks, is Anyband.

Also, if this pimps some of you into DBSK fandom, I am totally okay with that.

...Shame? I think I looked that up in the dictionary once.

Starting November 1st, the next round of Porn Battles will start. Once again we will ask for your prompts to be thrown out there for smutty minds to snap up and churn out porny gems for everyone's enjoyment.

SO start writing those prompts out, find a few from previous battles that you want to see written and throw them up.

Remember, all prompts in the top comment slot so they'll be found. If you think of some after you've posted, then post again. There's nothing that says you can only post once. In fact, we'll love you more if you post more.