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Title: 211 Showing Real Initiative
Author: Harlequin
Universe: Merlin
Characters featured: Merlin/Arthur
Category, Word count: Ongoing story; this part 1930 words
Rating: NC17
Summary: Arthur is rather aggrieved with Merlin, and they have different ideas about how to resolve the situation.
Warnings: Season two spoilers. Also, this is rather more angsty than recent instalments. I felt the two young men needed a crisis in their relationship – and based on the nature of this episode, maybe the Merlin writers did, too.
- Mood:
IDEK
...or, my characters want to go where everybody knows your name? [/song reference]
I'm running into a similar problem in two different works, so I have two settings:
1. unspecified location on Maryland's eastern shore, most people earn money by fishing or by taking tourists out to go fishing/hunting
2. totally made up universe, but fairly similar to most modern Western countries in terms of mobility and differences between rural and urban areas (higher mobility and transience in urban areas), coincidentally also a town where the economy is mostly around fishing, but no tourism
Basically what I want to know is, how big can a population get and still have everyone know everyone else at least by sight (perhaps just "that's one of the Smith children")? And of course, the flip side of that is, being able to know that someone is not a local even if they're not giving off any non-local vibes--you don't recognize them, ergo they must be from someplace else.
In both cases, the same people are living there for generations, with very few people moving in, and some people moving away.
As far as the eastern shore question goes, I've looked at a map and found several locations that might fit between 800 and 1000 in population, and from what I've read, although there is a significant amount of tourism, there's not a lot of moving in and out of these areas--most people who live there grew up there. Would people in a town of this size instantly know that someone wasn't from the town?
My gut instinct is yes, but on the other hand, my high school was about 800 students, and I didn't know everyone there by sight--not even close. I didn't even know everybody in my grade. I'm finding it difficult to conceptualize what the difference is between a city of 100k and a city of 200k, let alone what the difference is between a town of 500 and a town of 1000. Taking two places near where I grew up, I would have guessed that Easton and Bethlehem were about the same in population--turns out that Bethlehem is almost 3x the size of Easton, 70k to 25k. So trying to set population numbers for places always feels like a game of Wild Mass Guess to me.
Ideally I'd like to hear from people who grew up in towns where "everyone knew everyone by sight", and what the population was of your area. It doesn't really matter where in the world you are from because like I said one of the stories is set in a different universe.
As far as Googling and looking things up, I have asked some people who have visited the eastern shore what they thought of the communities. I have tried to look up populations for places near where I grew up and where I live now, figuring that I would be able to say "Oh, so a place with X people is like Z", but like I said, I'm quickly realizing that the size that I think places are in my head bears no resemblance to reality. Easton and Bethlehem feel so similar to me that I just assumed they had similar populations, but it's not even close. On the other hand, Allentown feels a lot larger, and while it is larger, it's closer in size to Bethlehem than Bethlehem is to Easton.
tl;dr I'm going to have characters say things along the lines of "I grew up in a town of X people and back there everyone knows you and your mom and your little dog too" and have the number X be reasonable. Would this be reasonable in a town of 800ish?
I'm running into a similar problem in two different works, so I have two settings:
1. unspecified location on Maryland's eastern shore, most people earn money by fishing or by taking tourists out to go fishing/hunting
2. totally made up universe, but fairly similar to most modern Western countries in terms of mobility and differences between rural and urban areas (higher mobility and transience in urban areas), coincidentally also a town where the economy is mostly around fishing, but no tourism
Basically what I want to know is, how big can a population get and still have everyone know everyone else at least by sight (perhaps just "that's one of the Smith children")? And of course, the flip side of that is, being able to know that someone is not a local even if they're not giving off any non-local vibes--you don't recognize them, ergo they must be from someplace else.
In both cases, the same people are living there for generations, with very few people moving in, and some people moving away.
As far as the eastern shore question goes, I've looked at a map and found several locations that might fit between 800 and 1000 in population, and from what I've read, although there is a significant amount of tourism, there's not a lot of moving in and out of these areas--most people who live there grew up there. Would people in a town of this size instantly know that someone wasn't from the town?
My gut instinct is yes, but on the other hand, my high school was about 800 students, and I didn't know everyone there by sight--not even close. I didn't even know everybody in my grade. I'm finding it difficult to conceptualize what the difference is between a city of 100k and a city of 200k, let alone what the difference is between a town of 500 and a town of 1000. Taking two places near where I grew up, I would have guessed that Easton and Bethlehem were about the same in population--turns out that Bethlehem is almost 3x the size of Easton, 70k to 25k. So trying to set population numbers for places always feels like a game of Wild Mass Guess to me.
Ideally I'd like to hear from people who grew up in towns where "everyone knew everyone by sight", and what the population was of your area. It doesn't really matter where in the world you are from because like I said one of the stories is set in a different universe.
As far as Googling and looking things up, I have asked some people who have visited the eastern shore what they thought of the communities. I have tried to look up populations for places near where I grew up and where I live now, figuring that I would be able to say "Oh, so a place with X people is like Z", but like I said, I'm quickly realizing that the size that I think places are in my head bears no resemblance to reality. Easton and Bethlehem feel so similar to me that I just assumed they had similar populations, but it's not even close. On the other hand, Allentown feels a lot larger, and while it is larger, it's closer in size to Bethlehem than Bethlehem is to Easton.
tl;dr I'm going to have characters say things along the lines of "I grew up in a town of X people and back there everyone knows you and your mom and your little dog too" and have the number X be reasonable. Would this be reasonable in a town of 800ish?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzYHofov
O hay look someone uploaded...ONE clip of the Chicago TARDIS masquerade :/ It is the first entry, my walk-on, so I really cannot complain - but I hope someone will upload the rest, especially the Chronovore XD
O hay look someone uploaded...ONE clip of the Chicago TARDIS masquerade :/ It is the first entry, my walk-on, so I really cannot complain - but I hope someone will upload the rest, especially the Chronovore XD
- Location:Argentina
- Music:Bad Romance - Lady Gaga
✩ New Chinese Prince of Tennis ep 16 sub out from DoReMii! Mine is still downloading so expect flail after I've watched it. Okay, maybe a little bit now: *flail*
✩ I'm sure you've all seen the scanlations for shin tenipuri 19 & 20 by now. All I have to add is I'm still loving the crack oh-so-very much and I'm in fucking Data Pair Paradise.
✩ I've only just begun my Harry Potter re-read and already the fic ideas are coming back to me. That canon has such incredible scope -- I hope I follow through and get some writing done there. (Maybe that one H/D story I tried and tried and tried to write but couldn't.) It's giving me such a warm fuzzy feeling to revisit the canon.
✩ I have figured out A Plan re LJ/DW now. LJ is my home base. I'm reading everyone here except for a tiny handful of journals I'm following on DW. If I try to follow any more there, I'll get too fragmented and just give up. I'm going to cross-post everything except: fic, which I'll link up from DW; locked entries, which I hardly ever make; posts I make from my iPhone that I'm too lazy to cross-post later, which are probably not that interesting anyhow. Comments will be directed back to LJ.
✩ I've been re-watching Ouran High School Host Club since seeing that YouTube PoT parody vid last week. I'd forgotten just how good it is. And how all the stuff with Hikaru and Kaoru makes me hurt. In a good way.
✩ Cheese, coffee, or chocolate? Which to have?
✩ I'm sure you've all seen the scanlations for shin tenipuri 19 & 20 by now. All I have to add is I'm still loving the crack oh-so-very much and I'm in fucking Data Pair Paradise.
✩ I've only just begun my Harry Potter re-read and already the fic ideas are coming back to me. That canon has such incredible scope -- I hope I follow through and get some writing done there. (Maybe that one H/D story I tried and tried and tried to write but couldn't.) It's giving me such a warm fuzzy feeling to revisit the canon.
✩ I have figured out A Plan re LJ/DW now. LJ is my home base. I'm reading everyone here except for a tiny handful of journals I'm following on DW. If I try to follow any more there, I'll get too fragmented and just give up. I'm going to cross-post everything except: fic, which I'll link up from DW; locked entries, which I hardly ever make; posts I make from my iPhone that I'm too lazy to cross-post later, which are probably not that interesting anyhow. Comments will be directed back to LJ.
✩ I've been re-watching Ouran High School Host Club since seeing that YouTube PoT parody vid last week. I'd forgotten just how good it is. And how all the stuff with Hikaru and Kaoru makes me hurt. In a good way.
✩ Cheese, coffee, or chocolate? Which to have?
more here @
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feky American Psycho, The Dark Knight, Terminator Salvation, Clash Of The Titans, Avatar, Closer, Fired Up, Garden Of Eden, The Outlander, Kill Bill I-II, Moulin Rouge, Wolverine Origins, The Bang Bang Club, The Convenant, Marie Antoinette, Gospel Hill, The Narrows, The Hitcher, Table For Three
Fic: Solitary man
Pairing: McKay/Sheppard
Rating: NC-17
Summary: John Sheppard was used to being on his own. He'd been booted out of the Air Force, was estranged from his family and was haunted by the guilt of everyone he'd ever let down. Then a wrong turn on a snowy night changed his life forever.
Genre: AU, angst, first time
Warnings: death of a secondary character
Spoilers: none
Word count: ~ 40,700
He battled on, head down as the blizzard gradually grew worse, the wind and snow howling and buffeting against him. Suddenly his foot collided with something solid and he fell to his knees, hands hitting a smooth surface as they pushed through the snow.
He raised his head, trying to focus through the grogginess, and was shocked to see a neat snow-covered porch in front of him. There was a light in the window, and he dragged himself to his feet and over to the door. He knocked as loudly as he could, but his arms felt like silly putty, and he hardly had the strength to keep his head up.
He had no idea how long he stood there, propped against the wall, before a welcoming rush of warm air hit him in the face. He managed to crack open his eyelids and found himself staring helplessly into a pair of shockingly beautiful blue eyes. He had a second to think ‘wow’ and ‘huh’ and then his vision greyed out, his legs folded under him, and he was out for the count.
Link to story
Pairing: McKay/Sheppard
Rating: NC-17
Summary: John Sheppard was used to being on his own. He'd been booted out of the Air Force, was estranged from his family and was haunted by the guilt of everyone he'd ever let down. Then a wrong turn on a snowy night changed his life forever.
Genre: AU, angst, first time
Warnings: death of a secondary character
Spoilers: none
Word count: ~ 40,700
He battled on, head down as the blizzard gradually grew worse, the wind and snow howling and buffeting against him. Suddenly his foot collided with something solid and he fell to his knees, hands hitting a smooth surface as they pushed through the snow.
He raised his head, trying to focus through the grogginess, and was shocked to see a neat snow-covered porch in front of him. There was a light in the window, and he dragged himself to his feet and over to the door. He knocked as loudly as he could, but his arms felt like silly putty, and he hardly had the strength to keep his head up.
He had no idea how long he stood there, propped against the wall, before a welcoming rush of warm air hit him in the face. He managed to crack open his eyelids and found himself staring helplessly into a pair of shockingly beautiful blue eyes. He had a second to think ‘wow’ and ‘huh’ and then his vision greyed out, his legs folded under him, and he was out for the count.
Link to story
This mourning for fictional characters topic is really sort of bottomless, and I've become keenly aware that if I were Actually An Academic, that there's a book in this. Maybe there's a book in this anyway. Right, One Thing At a Time.
ellen_kushner and deliasherman's NYRSF reading. Delia read a great story about historic and mythical New York, and Ellen finally told us all how Richard dies. The story hasn't been published (or purchased) yet, and the effect of it is so great I don't really want to go into the details of it, but so far all I've been able to muster as a review of it is that it felt "necessary." Certainly, it all felt very suitable in light of the Bristol paper and the sort of ends people tend to meet in fictions I love. So yeah. As I do, I ran into people I know there, including stakebait, mnemex and a woman who Ellen introduced me to that recognized me from LJ. Hi, if you're out there and want to continue that acafen discussion!Title: A Conversation
Summary: A conversation between Merlin and Morgana
Warning/Spoiler: Slash, Future!Fic, AU, Humour, Spoilers for Season One and Two
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Merlin/Arthur, Merlin, Morgana
Word Count: ~ 600
Disclaimer: The show and all characters are owned by the BBC. This is just for fun.
Author’s notes: Complete and utter nonsense.
Here: http://silkmoth101.livejournal.com/1590
Summary: A conversation between Merlin and Morgana
Warning/Spoiler: Slash, Future!Fic, AU, Humour, Spoilers for Season One and Two
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Merlin/Arthur, Merlin, Morgana
Word Count: ~ 600
Disclaimer: The show and all characters are owned by the BBC. This is just for fun.
Author’s notes: Complete and utter nonsense.
Here: http://silkmoth101.livejournal.com/1590
Fic: Solitary man
Pairing: McKay/Sheppard
Rating: NC-17
Summary: John Sheppard was used to being on his own. He'd been booted out of the Air Force, was estranged from his family and was haunted by the guilt of everyone he'd ever let down. Then a wrong turn on a snowy night changed his life forever.
Genre: AU, angst, first time
Warnings: death of a secondary character
Spoilers: none
Word count: ~ 40,700
He battled on, head down as the blizzard gradually grew worse, the wind and snow howling and buffeting against him. Suddenly his foot collided with something solid and he fell to his knees, hands hitting a smooth surface as they pushed through the snow.
He raised his head, trying to focus through the grogginess, and was shocked to see a neat snow-covered porch in front of him. There was a light in the window, and he dragged himself to his feet and over to the door. He knocked as loudly as he could, but his arms felt like silly putty, and he hardly had the strength to keep his head up.
He had no idea how long he stood there, propped against the wall, before a welcoming rush of warm air hit him in the face. He managed to crack open his eyelids and found himself staring helplessly into a pair of shockingly beautiful blue eyes. He had a second to think ‘wow’ and ‘huh’ and then his vision greyed out, his legs folded under him, and he was out for the count.
Link to story
Pairing: McKay/Sheppard
Rating: NC-17
Summary: John Sheppard was used to being on his own. He'd been booted out of the Air Force, was estranged from his family and was haunted by the guilt of everyone he'd ever let down. Then a wrong turn on a snowy night changed his life forever.
Genre: AU, angst, first time
Warnings: death of a secondary character
Spoilers: none
Word count: ~ 40,700
He battled on, head down as the blizzard gradually grew worse, the wind and snow howling and buffeting against him. Suddenly his foot collided with something solid and he fell to his knees, hands hitting a smooth surface as they pushed through the snow.
He raised his head, trying to focus through the grogginess, and was shocked to see a neat snow-covered porch in front of him. There was a light in the window, and he dragged himself to his feet and over to the door. He knocked as loudly as he could, but his arms felt like silly putty, and he hardly had the strength to keep his head up.
He had no idea how long he stood there, propped against the wall, before a welcoming rush of warm air hit him in the face. He managed to crack open his eyelids and found himself staring helplessly into a pair of shockingly beautiful blue eyes. He had a second to think ‘wow’ and ‘huh’ and then his vision greyed out, his legs folded under him, and he was out for the count.
Link to story
California Tea House Silver Needle: White teas take a sensitive palate to appreciate them, as they are very subtle. Here's a good one.
(mods, please delete my last post from the queue and use this one... I hit enter too soon on the other one!)
I have my recap up for the Tampa Bay show, which was Next Big Thing on 12/6. It's really short compared to the other one... the only band I really took pictures of was Panic!, because my pics from the Buzz Bake Sale show were so poor, and I barely took any other pictures of the other bands, just enjoyed the show!
( preview of pictures )
And a video... probably my favorite part of the entire set:
And, the LINK TO THE FULL POST!
None of these pictures are tagged... I'd really rather NOT have to tag my pictures, but I will if I find people stealing them and claiming them as their own (as has happened in the past). And so, as always, you are welcome to use any of the video or pictures that I post, just PLEASE CREDIT! You don't even have to tell me you're taking them, just credit them back to me, PLEASE! Please refer to this post if you have any questions about usage of my photos.
I have my recap up for the Tampa Bay show, which was Next Big Thing on 12/6. It's really short compared to the other one... the only band I really took pictures of was Panic!, because my pics from the Buzz Bake Sale show were so poor, and I barely took any other pictures of the other bands, just enjoyed the show!
( preview of pictures )
And a video... probably my favorite part of the entire set:
And, the LINK TO THE FULL POST!
None of these pictures are tagged... I'd really rather NOT have to tag my pictures, but I will if I find people stealing them and claiming them as their own (as has happened in the past). And so, as always, you are welcome to use any of the video or pictures that I post, just PLEASE CREDIT! You don't even have to tell me you're taking them, just credit them back to me, PLEASE! Please refer to this post if you have any questions about usage of my photos.
Last week, in the World Of Making Stuff:
Post your culinary and crafty creations in the comments! As always, if you have a bunch of photos, please post 1-2 here and link to your journal for the rest. Have fun!
(also, I am running out of quotes for the title! So if you know of any food-, clothing-, or craft-related Star Trek quotes, please post them!)
- randomyst and a friend baked badge/Vulcan salute/crewmember cookies and GQMF cupcakes
- roseeclipse decided that Pinto tastes like peanut butter and chocolate
- zafiroblanco made
frankentribbles - placebobitch baked a sweet insignia cake
- notchka88 ... um... I'm not even sure how to write this, it's Kirk in a cake dress
- captainoo and courtneydrewb made shrinky-dink insignia hairclips
Post your culinary and crafty creations in the comments! As always, if you have a bunch of photos, please post 1-2 here and link to your journal for the rest. Have fun!
(also, I am running out of quotes for the title! So if you know of any food-, clothing-, or craft-related Star Trek quotes, please post them!)
I call this a Christmas Cookie, but of course, it is not yet Christmas and of course it is not my present to you all!
My present to you all is a short story called Nick's First Word and I have sent it off to my web designer, so it should be up some time between now and Christmas, and I hope you will enjoy it! But this is not that story.
Since I put up the first chapter last month on this day, it has become Official Cookie Day, and thus you are due a cookie.
I chose this bit of The Demon's Covenant because it has lots of Nick in it, and chapter one cruelly deprived those who like that sort of thing. Feedback on what sort of thing you wish for in Cookies of the Future much desired.
Major, huge, world-ending spoilers for Demon's Lexicon within.
( Christmas Cookie for The Demon's Covenant )
My present to you all is a short story called Nick's First Word and I have sent it off to my web designer, so it should be up some time between now and Christmas, and I hope you will enjoy it! But this is not that story.
Since I put up the first chapter last month on this day, it has become Official Cookie Day, and thus you are due a cookie.
I chose this bit of The Demon's Covenant because it has lots of Nick in it, and chapter one cruelly deprived those who like that sort of thing. Feedback on what sort of thing you wish for in Cookies of the Future much desired.
Major, huge, world-ending spoilers for Demon's Lexicon within.
( Christmas Cookie for The Demon's Covenant )
- Location:cherry bomb
- Mood:
cheerful - Music:short skirt long jacket
Hello, de-lurking to post my first Merlin slash fic, and probably my last since I rather like reading than writing :)
Title: After Death
Rating: R
Warnings/Spoilers: Character Deaths
Summary: After death, life goes on amidst violence and trickery. Based on a Thai movie Opapatika (I don't know why I wrote this. I don't really like angst but I just needed to write this down to get it out of my system)
Title: After Death
Rating: R
Warnings/Spoilers: Character Deaths
Summary: After death, life goes on amidst violence and trickery. Based on a Thai movie Opapatika (I don't know why I wrote this. I don't really like angst but I just needed to write this down to get it out of my system)
- Mood:accomplished
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CC Denn on Flickr.com
Need a clue? Here it is:
How do you ask a reptile a question?
Give up? Click on the image or photo credit and then, if you want to know more, read more on the topic.
Wordless Wednesday and About.com's Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday - Guess What originally appeared on About.com Ancient / Classical History on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 06:55:30.
Hanukkah starts at sundown on Friday December 11.
Hanukkah (Hanukah / Hanuka / Chanukah) is a festival of lights that is symbolized by the candelabrum known as a menorah. I recently read that menorah refers to a candelabrum with one too few candles and is not the right term; that chanukiah is to be preferred, but I don't know. Do you? If so, please comment.
Hanukkah celebrates a lighting miracle when one night's worth of oil lit candles for 8 days. Special foods and gift-giving are also a part of Hanukkah.
See Winter Holidays, including Hanukkah
Hanukkah 2009 originally appeared on About.com Ancient / Classical History on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 06:50:54.