melannen | (no subject)

I appear to have accidentally not-written a Star Trek:TOS barista AU over in

thefourthvine's comments, which is probably a sign I should just update over here already.

Um. I am back from the trip, obviously, and mostly caught up on internets stuff. Summary of the wedding: the priest looked exactly like Lucius Malfoy and we were informed at the reception that white people don't wear hats to formal events (even as we sat next to cousin-in-law who wears hijab, yay). ...Possibly I am just not fit for weddings at the moment.

Anyway, the day before the wedding we went to Carillon Park, which was a lot more awesome than I have been led to believe. If you have any interest in the history of technology and industry in the US, and you find yourself in Dayton, you should take a day (it takes a whole day) and go. They have a (fully functional) industrial steam engine that fills a whole building! They have a whole barn full of real 19th-century train cars that you can actually go inside! They have two actual Wright Flyers! Etc. and so on! (I took a bunch of pictures of the men's bathroom of the Barney & Smith luxury passenger car because I was pretty sure knowing the layout of the men's bathrooms on 19th century trains would come up in fandom at some point.) ETA: Also, apparently my great-great-uncle Omer actually invented the electrical starter motor for cars, and Charles Kettering blatantly stole it from him! Now you know.)

The day after the wedding we went to Caesar's Creek State Park and collected many tiny brachiopod fossils (and four whole trilobites!) and then we went back to Troy by the scenic route, and stopped at the yellow springs at Yellow Springs and Young's Jersey Dairy (which my uncle remembered as a barn with a window in it where you can get coffee, donuts, and ice cream 24 hours a day, and is... a lot different from that now.) I don't think I'd ever driven through actual downtown Yellow Springs before; I knew it was a college town but it is, omg, possibly the most hipsterish street I've ever been on. I mean, imagine Cambridge near Harvard Square and then increase the hipster quotient by about 400% and you might be approaching it. I think we'll have to go there after Christmas and just to wander around and gaze in amazement. And then we brought home four bags of pears and two boxes of used books.

Also,

stellar_dust totally broke my mp3 player. :P

ETA2: Oh! I almost forgot: We listened to most of The Language of Bees on the car trip (I was put in charge of finding a book-on-CD that was at the library and that everybody on the trip would be able to endure) and yes, you people who said I'd like the series were probably right, although I still don't buy that Holmes married her and WTH is Watson, but anyway, the important question:

Is Mary's titled, too-smart-for-his-own-good amateur detective friend with the talent for aristocratic flimflam who I think he is, or is he just some OC who appeared previously in the series?

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(I took a bunch of pictures of the men's bathroom of the Barney & Smith luxury passenger car because I was pretty sure knowing the layout of the men's bathrooms on 19th century trains would come up in fandom at some point.)

Thank god I'm not the only person who does this sort of thing. I have so many photos of different eras of New York subway cars and London Underground carriages and buses and trains and...

And some of the New York ones are actually coming in useful with Captain America fandom!

I know! I am so tempted to attempt some fanart set in a Victorian train just so I can use some of the photos I took. ~~Or work on the early-1900s-Top-Gear AU some more~~

Yeah, I think you should post those pictures. Shoot, that sounds like a great writing challenge: write a scene set in this first-class men's railway bathroom.

They are by no means great photos (I have yet to figure out the trick of photographing small interior spaces, at least without a fisheye lens) but, ~maybe~? If I ever get caught up on my long, long photos backlog!

Maybe I'll draw fanart of Madelyn Mack and Nora Noraker, in drag, making out in it, and then post the photos as my reference shots. :P

I APPROVE OF THAT PLAN :D

You definitely need to write that Star Trek AU.

I've never been to Dayton, but the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland is a great place to spend a day -- chaotic pendulums! wind machines! photosensitive walls! Omnimax theater!

I have decided to embrace the bandom concept of not!fic and declare it a finished work as-is. :P

And ooh, that sounds cool! The science center in Baltimore is kind of sad and dreary these days: I am jealous. (Especially about the chaotic pendulum! I love them. Do they have a GIGANTIC one?)

Is Mary's titled, too-smart-for-his-own-good amateur detective friend with the talent for aristocratic flimflam who I think he is...?

Yes, he is! He shows up again more explicitly in the third book, if you haven't gotten to that one yet. But apparently the Sayers estate has since asked Laurie King not to use him again. :-(

Also, the TOS barista AU is awesome!

Damn you, Sayers estate! Isn't the first book out of copyright now anyway? :P But I suppose copyright is one thing and complying with polite requests is another.

Honestly, I can't forgive King for treating Watson like an utter imbecile, so I'm sort of happy with the estate!

I've just kind of accepted the fact that any published novel which involves Holmes and female persons is going to completely screw up Watson (if not erase him outright.) I dunno - are there Holmes Mary-Sues online that do that to, or is the internet hetfic actually better than the published stuff?

Terrific ST barista AU! I really enjoyed reading it!

Thanks!

Wait, did someone tell you you were too white to wear a hat at a wedding?

Not in... so many words. (Actually the wedding was all white people, I think the implication was less "you're too white", and more "if you do, you're not white enough". IDEK, it was full of D: )