So apparently today is "Post Cat Pictures on DW day"

[melannen]

I approve! Especially since Sister has gone away again and left her cats here, which means I can take all the cat pictures I want.

The first one is Darcy helping me sort comics. And my "helping" I mean "I had those two comics on my lap and she jumped on them, so I pulled them out from under and put them beside the computer, so she went and sat by the computer, so I pulled them out from under and put them back on my lap, so she jumped back on my lap, so I sighed and pulled out the camera."

(Yes, those comics do have Indiana Jones fighting a giant squid and naked!John Carter of Mars in boobs-and-butt pose on their covers. Because my taste in comics is impeccable. Or at least impecunious. I went through my longbox a couple days ago as part of the current get-rid-of-junk push, and I am strongly tempted to turn my poor lonely tumblr into "melannen posts about all the weird stuff in her longbox" because that seems to be what tumblr is for, and maybe it will make it easier for the more dragonish parts of my personality to get rid of them if I have recorded them somewhere first.)

Next we have poor Bingley being dead of loneliness, and then not actually dead but very, very sad because the ONLY person who has EVER loved her is gone.

And then: SNAKE, SNAKE, IT'S A DARCY-SNAKE.









***

Also I have been posting a Thing on AO3. Actually a "Five+One Things", in which I self-indulgently explore the ways in which the movieverse Avengers could be in-character fannish. It is the first five things I have ever actually written all the things for! I am very proud and decided to post it as a WIP on AO3 just because I could. The last part should go up tomorrow.

Five Avengers Who Earned Their Fan Cred Honestly (and one who didn't) (4782 words) by melannen
Chapters: 5/6
Fandom: The Avengers (2012)
Notes: Gen, G, no content warnings, no pairings, canon childhoods are hinted at but not explored in depth (because even the worst childhood can still have some happy Star Wars memories okay,) all the obscure fan references are explained in the endnotes.
Summary:

In 1940, Bucky took Steve and a couple of girls to the closing weeks of the New York World's Fair, and Steve sneaked off to go to the U. S. Army recruiting station instead.

In 1939, Bucky took Steve and a couple of girls to the New York World's Fair when it was still new and exciting. Steve sneaked off to go to the First World Science Fiction Convention instead.

By the way I dare someone to take "Steve Rogers at Worldcon" and turn it into the proper full-length fic it deserves (I linked some reference resources in the notes on that chapter.)

Comments

[erinptah]

Darcy Sits Where Darcy Wants^TM.

Awwww, the tragedy that is Bings. You will just have to snuggle her extra to make up for it, clearly.

[melannen]

Bings keeps coming up to us and meowing desperately like she needs something and then wandering sulkily off again. WHAT DO YOU WANT, BINGS, SPEAK ENGLISH. I hope it is not Katy because we cannot provide a Katy. Snuggles we can do but they seem to be Not Good Enough. I never thought I would miss the I Has A String announcements. :|

[erinptah]

D'aww. Maybe she's meowing for playtime? At least having a string to chase would take her mind off the Tragedy of No Katy for a while.

[holyschist]

Actually a "Five+One Things", in which I self-indulgently explore the ways in which the movieverse Avengers could be in-character fannish.

Haven't read all of it yet, but the Thor one made my heart do things, and now I kind of want to request Tattuinardoelasaga for Yuletide. I didn't realize it was done! And I am so glad you melded it with Avengers, because now my life is weirdly complete.

[melannen]

The Thor one (and the Steve one) are probably the best. (At least judging by density of footnotes.)

And the Saga is done, and yes it is awesome! Although it does vary some from the original summary in ways I am kind of meh about.

[holyschist]

I love how "density of footnotes" is one of your criteria for "best." :-P

I will have to see what I think! Mostly I am just in mad love with the idea. And I really ought to go back to trying to learn ON...

[melannen]

You are invalidating my footnote-rich lifestyle choices. ),;

Sister made me listen to several hours of "Teach Yourself Icelandic" on the way here. I now know how to say "Wrong, and also rubbish" in Icelandic. (No idea how to spell it though. It was a freely downloadable mp3 course, I should try to figure out where I can find a copy.)

[stellar_dust]

http://www.alarichall.org.uk/teaching/modern_icelandic.php :D (I got it from a post of naraht's.)

Poor Bings! Aww. Tell her I am sending her snuggles from afar!

[melannen]

She is tragic and her life is a tragedy. Also, also, sometimes people eat, and they don't give her any! And then they offer her some, and it isn't food she likes! Nothing but tragedy.

I think maybe the whining this morning was because she has finally figured out that you will be gone longer than a conference weekend.

[holyschist]

Nono, I am also a practitioner of a footnote-rich lifestyle! :-P

Icelandic is an awesome language. Also the spelling baffles me utterly. (I spent way too much time trying to pronounce Eyjafjallajokull. Apparently I can spell it, but I still don't understand the pronunciation.)

[melannen]

The problem for me with that glacier is the Icelandic ll, which seems to be even harder than the Welsh one (and the vowels/stresses, but I am always bad at that.) The pronunciation made sense when I listened to the audios! ... I can't map it onto the spelling at all though, and looking at the spelling screws up the audio memory.

[holyschist]

I remember it being something like "Eye-fa-fyat-la-yo-kut," but that...does not make any sense to me.

[melannen]

...that's not far off? The ll sounds fairly close to t-l to me, and j is a consonantal y (usually) so eye-ya-fyat-la-yo-kut(l) probably is close in English orthography, except an Icelander would probably put the syllable breaks elsewhere.

I cannot pronounce that either, though.

[holyschist]

...that reminds me of Nahuatl now. Tl sounds, argh.

[stellar_dust]

Yeah, it actually is kind of similar to a Nahuatl tl, or at least that's how I think of it! With maybe a little more aspiration between the t and the l.

[seekingferret]

This year is going to be my first Worldcon. I'm looking forward to it, but I'd be looking forward to it more if Steve were there.

[melannen]

Ooh! I will be jealous. Possibly just across town, being jealous while doing things that are less fun. :D

[seekingferret]

If you're in town, possibly there can be a meetup?

[melannen]

Possibly! Right now it's all in the air, but as things get closer I will definitely propose a meetup if it works out as possible.

[seekingferret]

Cool. Let me know.

Besides WorldCon, I've been trying to canvass people to go to a ballgame when I'm in Chicago. Wrigley is awesome.

[seekingferret]

Do you have any clearer ideas of whether you'll be in Chicago yet?

I'm flying in next Wednesday afternoon and leaving on Labor Day.

[zlabya]

Cats!!!! Darcy and Bingley look marvelous. And Darcy is, of course, in charge of the comics-sorting and therefore the grunt work is for you.

[melannen]

Darcy is always in charge. Physical labor is for human servants. And Bingley is a very pretty cat, especially when she is being tragic! (Darcy is a very pretty cat half the time; the other half of the time she resembles a squamous creature of the deeps.)