Entertaining in a Disturbing Way

Femslash Drabble Meme - https://saiditallbefore.dreamwidth.org/16990.html ; Prompting/filling runs through April 30th.

Minor Character Fest - https://elasticella.dreamwidth.org/67358.html ; Prompting/filling runs through March 31.

Youtube tossed the trailer for Ghosted at me, and out of curiosity, I watched it. Plot: dude and chick have a one-night stand. She ghosts him. He stalks her to England because She Is The One (this is framed as totally ROMANTIC YOU GUYS). He gets kidnaped and tortured. She rescues him (points for dude damsel in distress, but not enough to offset the stalking). Spoiler: she's a CIA agent. He tags along while she saves the world.

So.

A) I've seen this plot before, only it was gender-swapped and there were other women involved. Also, Annie figured out he was CIA, and got herself a job there in order to stalk Ben, and then ended up being miles better as an agent than he ever was. Covert Affairs had its terrible moments, but multiple women who have conversations and intense relationships trumps sausage-fest with One Girl In All The World schlock.

B) No, really, why are there never any women in action movies? Is it a "We filled our quota with our star" thing?. Because it ruins the whole movie for me.

C) Seriously, there are no other women in that trailer. I don't understand, is this one of those reverse Y The Last Man alternate universes?

I managed to post exactly 0 things for halfamoon.

Though I managed some more for the 3sf. But let me tell you, those serotonin hits that first weekend of the 3sf were great. Sadly, once that first weekend passed, the comments dwindled down to almost nothing. Whoof, the cold turkey isn't pleasant (and is probably directly responsible for the halfamoon thing - after all, no one liked 3sf fills, why bother with the other?)

(not that that stopped me writing more fills)

I've been more active on tumblr recently mostly due to the lazy nature of scrolling through pictures. That said, holy fuck but my block list sometimes grows daily.

I'm toying with watching s3 of Picard (have you seen the trailer, it's like, "Hey, Next Gen fans, wanna plaaaay?"). If only to see more of Bev and Deanna and Riker.

I've been slowly making my way through the Torchwood monthly range - I'm not sure where I left off last, but I'll post up my reviews in a separate post. That said, I need more Suzie and Yvonne, and I'll probably break down and by the last six months just for the new Suzie one soon (I prefer to pick them up when they're on sale). There's a Torchwood Soho one, Madam I'm, and it was so good and I loved the Soho team in that, so I'm reluctantly adding TW Soho to my list of Things To Buy On Sale.

And A Postcard From Mr. Colchester is still fucking amazing (and free). I pop it on when I'm feeling annoyed with politics.

Mom and I have been watching Poirot and Marple - and I've been watching them both on my own, as well. They're decent background noise during work (I'm probably digging out the Midsomer Murders spindle soon, too). And while I generally like the episodes, there are still a few I can't stand (Taken at the Flood, for instance, I loathe it). Or dislike parts of - The Hollow, for instance? That dude needed killing, and no one should have been sad he was dead (philandering assholes are best dead). And I really don't understand why Christie keeps doing the "Smart woman is too stupid not to fall in love with asshole" trope, but it really grates with Henrietta--particularly as she seems to have no guilt over fucking Greta's husband; honestly, she should have gone to prison for assisting with the murder.

Anyway, the list of 3sf things.
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No, I really do feel like this week has been 20+ days. I thought yesterday was Thursday for most of the day, too.

Halfamoon is happening again this year (yay) https://halfamoon.dreamwidth.org/391830.html

Three Sentence ficathon still open for prompts (on post 2!). The volume slowed down quite a bit, sadly. I got a few more in there, though. But prompts! If you're like, there is this thing someone should write that isn't me, go. Prompt it.

It's a community, this year. Which makes sense. I can't imagine dealing with 4K comments coming through. It is here: https://threesentenceficathon.dreamwidth.org/

Start date is Friday the 13th.

It is an excellent low-pressure ficlet-writing experience.

1. I visited my family over the holiday - it was nice to see them. Mom and I watched the end of Foyle's War, and Sister Boniface, and Campion and some other things.

2. I took two weeks off. Well. Six days, I've got the Friday/Monday sandwiching both holidays off as well. It feels weird.

3. Did NOT drive in the storm, went down the day before. Wouldn't have enjoyed it.

4. Chris Boucher and Stephen Greif have both passed away. The Blake's 7 family continues to shrink (show lead, Star Cops creator, DW script editor and writer. And the first Travis).

5. I got round to posting the Lee/Roslin smut fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43725378

6. Also wrote some Johanna (modern) and Ric the Vic fic. Well, mostly Ric's POV. https://archiveofourown.org/works/43609537 I would kill for an entire series of the two of them and their insane adventures bilking the aristos out of cash for demon slaying.

7. Re: Foyle's War, I have thoughts on how Foyle was entirely unsuited to the security services. And I fell in love with Valentine (who has no fic about him at all, which is sad). I still don't like Adam Wainwright :/ - at least Max Brown had decent chemistry with Honeysuckle Weeks, though. I'm also deeply unimpressed with their choices at the end of the series. Ugh.

Still alive! In the last two months, I have --

1. Survived month and year end close. Thank goodness. I'm not sure I've survived the QAD go-live, though.
2. Been to see my sister and mom the week before DragonCon (yay!)
3. Survived Dragon (and Hotel Hunger Games for next year were a success). I don't actually remember much outside of realizing that I'm getting OLD. And I hate it.
4. Picked up and survived Covid (at DragonCon, thanks, you fucking anti-masker assholes).

5. Continued to lament the lack of modern Johanna Constantine fic (I would still kill for a show, ngl).

6. Written post-Dissection-related Gwen and Martha fic Holding On Is Letting Go - I still don't know if I'm proud of this fic. But at least it's not in my head anymore.

7. Not posted the Lee/Roslin smut. I, er, hadn't intended not to, I sort of just forgot it existed. I should get on that.

8. Reminded myself that it is SPARKTOBER, even if I have managed 0 participation so far.

9. Replayed my way through half of Grim Tales and a bit more than that of Mystery Case Files. The horror vibes of the latter are really working for me this time around (the sheer bleak horror of Broken Hour, holy fuck).

10. Played the demo for the newest Grim Tales game, which is taking a decidedly... fantastical realm design? Like, it's Grim Tales, but with Amaranthine Voyage as a backdrop. Not sure I liked it, though I appreciate the game series and Anna Grey. This one (and the one before) has her mother in it.

10b. That said, I'm still reeling over replaying Crimson Hollow and actually paying attention to the part where Dorian Black was murdering hundreds of teenage girls with no consequences. Instead, he married Anna. (and yes, I'm still delighted that he took her name, ok.) Like, I get why Richard thinks he's a great match for Anna, Richard likes evil people.

I've made it through all but two of the 1-42 episodes I got on sale (like, major sale. They need to have another, I need more Torchwood in my ears). Those two are the Andy one with the guy from Ghost Protocol, and Save Our Souls. I just wasn't in the mood for Queen Victoria, ok. Oh, and the one with Michael Palin. I'd forgotten I skipped that one.

All told, though, I am absolutely LOVING Big Finish's TW stuff. They're doing it almost like an anthology, with the tone all over the place. Some episodes are sad, some depressing, some bleak, some ridiculous (looking at you, Expectant), some are a combination. And they're all really great sketching in things or just adding to the Torchwood mythos.

NEEDS MORE SUZIE AND YVONNE, though. I might have to actually buy the TW: London stuff.
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Having played through all of the MCF, I've been at loose ends. Picking my way back through games I've played, playing some new ones.

One thing, though, I'd forgotten how absolutely boring large portions of Labyrinths of the World: Shattered Soul were. I don't know if I just have higher standards? But I keep quitting and playing Chuzzle instead. I am amused that LotW: SS has a Evil Scientist Steals Souls plot, but it's more ~wacky Adventure than the MCF Ravenhearst arcs (which are Gothic as fuck). Also, this dude has no menace. Charles Dalimar would eat him for breakfast. Hell, Charles's son, the stupid Santa look-a-like would triumph over this dude. (Grandpappy Alister wouldn't even notice murdering him, that's how low Evil Scientist Guy would rate with him)

LotW: Forbibben Muse and Stonehenge are both all right? Still, not as great as I'd remembered.

Reflections of Life (new) - Equilibrium, Dark Architect, & Call of the Ancestors. They were all right. Not the most complicated games, and while Equilibrium felt packed with stuff and fairly long, Call of the Ancestors felt short. Short isn't good. I like a long game (Grim Tales: The Heir never seems to end, for instance). But I did like them, and the design was great.

Danse Macabre + Amaranthine Voyage + Mystery of the Ancients (replays) - still ridiculous and full of "we did not cosplay this, bite your tongue" silliness.

I've also been listening to my whole play-list, sorted by album title, which has lead to some entertaining juxtapositions in songs.

Like, if I had one.

Things I've watched recently (because that's about the only thing I do these days):

- Good Omens (which is hilarious, as I've had it since it released on dvd, and just never managed to get round to it). I enjoyed it for the most part, thought the casting was great. I can entirely see why they're aiming at a sequel. Have zzeeero interest in the fandom or fic. (HAND-HOLDING. THERE IS ONLY HAND-HOLDING)

- NCIS up through season 15 (the last one netflix has). I... didn't hate it. I'm not sure I actually enjoyed it (I was using it as background noise during my workdays which is why I plowed through 12-14 seasons in a month or so--and it's perfect for that). I like Abby and Ziva and Ellie Bishop. And Ziva's leaving was utter shit as I'd expected it would be.

It was also hilarious to pick out the Leverage villains that kept guesting. The Mako showed up at one point, and I waited and waaaaited for the shark jokes. And there were none. /sadface.

Also, wow is it obvious that something was up when Perrette and Harmon stop interacting. There's almost an entire season where they don't share a single scene, and she's constantly surrounded or interacting with the others (which is fine! It meant a lot more women having conversations about things that weren't men!) And then her last episode is the first time they share the screen and I'm not actually sure they were in the room at the same time.

I also deeply loved and adored Abigail Borin, who shows up a couple times, and would watch an entire fucking series with her as the lead (fucking get on that, CBS).

- NCIS New Orleans in the crossovers. Oh my god, did I hate them. Just. The original dialed up to 900000 with the police brutality. Ugh. It probably doesn't help that I've never been a Scott Bakula fan.

- Frankie Drake, about half of season one. I've liked what I've seen! It's just, I can't have it as background, because I want to watch it. So it's languished again (and also, mom and I will probably start watching once we're done with Leverage).

- The 355. Which I wanted to like more than I did. I spent a lot of the movie feeling frustrated (why are these movies not catering to my id, why). Mostly, because while, yes, it was awesome to have multiple women as leads, why were all the bad guys dudes. Not to mention, 90% of the background and extras? I'm pretty sure Mace is the only woman in the entire CIA. I've seen Covert Affairs! There can be women in the CIA, and in background shots and antagonist roles! /bah. ffs, even Spooks managed a decent number of women in background scenes.

If anyone is looking for a low-impact, not particularly stressful promptfest:

The 3 Sentence Ficathon is here with multiple posts - I linked to the second post for prompting, but the first can be found quite easily. Fairly large variety of fandoms and fills.

(and yes, I have posted fills and have some prompts to post once I get to the end of the second prompt post)

Friending meme is here: https://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/173507.html

Halfamoon is happening, post one has happened! War and Peace for the day one prompt.

It is also Femslash February, I have 28 pairings and 28 prompts. I'm uncertain how that will go, though.