Trabia Garden

At the moment, I am re-reading Emma for my Jane Austen course, and I think 'Mr Knightley seemed to be trying not to smile, and succeeded without difficulty upon Mrs Elton's beginning to talk to him' has to be one of my favourite lines ever. You are awesome, Jane Austen. I wish you had a Livejournal.

You know who would be great in Silent Hill? Catherine Morland of Northanger Abbey. On some strange level, she'd love it. (On most levels, of course, she'd be absolutely terrified.)


( Thoughts on sibling relationships in Revolutionary Girl Utena. Spoilers up to the fifteenth episode, 'The Landscape Framed by Kozue'. )


My housemate invited me to watch an episode of Spooks last night. This somehow led to the following exchange:

Riona: Do you find the idea of Richard Armitage being waterboarded strangely erotic?
Riona's Housemate: ...I'm not going to answer that.

I enjoy this household.

In more Tales of Riona's Housemate: a couple of weeks ago, a Facebook matchmaking application recommended a rather alarming-looking man named 'Steven' to her.

(Riona and Riona's Housemate are at the computer, looking at Steven's picture.)
Riona's Housemate: He looks like the sort of bloke I'd run away with.
Riona: ...
Riona's Housemate: ...RUN AWAY FROM.
Riona: (never quite stops laughing)

Today, I rushed from London to Brighton for a seminar that, I discovered upon arrival, had been cancelled.

Mildly put out, I returned to my Brighton abode, where I found a large and intriguing-looking package waiting for me. The details on the back informed me that the sender was a Vayne Aurelius, who, I discovered after a quick Googling, is the protagonist of a game called Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis.

This was perplexing.

I opened the package to find a copy of The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases, the editors of which, according to the blurb, 'received their medical degrees in a dream', and a rather charming and apologetic note from Mr Aurelius, written on the back of a 'Combat Basics 1' exercise sheet ('What to do if you encounter an extraterrestial:'), in which he explained that someone had wished that he send me the book and expressed his hope that I didn't mind receiving it. Inside the book was an empty envelope, on which was written 'To my dear Wainwright, with affectionate regards, Lady Cloudesley'.

I am deeply, deeply confused, and I have absolutely no idea who is responsible, but thank you so much! (I love the level of detail that's gone into this.)


I'm not participating in National Novel Writing Month this year, but I've decided that I'm going to try to at least write something every day during the month of November, whether it's a snippet or a full fic or part of a work in progress. Yesterday, I wrote a tiny clip of Jane and Cho snogging in the interrogation room; today, I am calling upon you to help me.


Give me a prompt, and I'll write you a ficsnippet. Multiple requests are more than welcome!


Feel free to request from anything you know I know! (Requesting from things you don't know I know is acceptable, but in that case it would probably be an idea to include a request or two from something you know I know as well, so you don't end up with 'BARNEY WAS A PERSON (PROBABLY). HE WAS PLAYED BY NEIL PATRICK HARRIS (I THINK, BUT I THINK EVERYONE'S PLAYED BY NEIL PATRICK HARRIS, SO I CAN'T BE SURE). HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER IS A SITCOM, SO AMUSING THINGS PROBABLY HAPPENED. THE END.') Crossovers and the like are, of course, fine.

(I'd be delighted if you made Mentalist requests, but please bear in mind that I'm only just starting to write these characters, so I'm still trying to get to grips with them. I've seen up to the first-season finale.)

Make as many requests as you'd like (and please don't feel you have to know me well to request a snippet); as I've said, I'm going to be trying to write every day, so any prompts would be gratefully received. Thank you!

Am I going to keep doing this meme until I have covered all 3,741 possible combinations? Probably not. But I can give it a really good try.


- Write a list of characters and number them.
- Input the number of characters into this random number generator as the maximum and generate two numbers.
- Ramble about how the corresponding pairing/partnership/general interaction would (or, indeed, wouldn't) work. Perhaps write a snippet/one-sentence fic for it if you're feeling brave.
- Repeat to your heart's content.


( Fandoms represented: Stargate SG-1, Scrubs, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy X, Harry Potter, Supernatural, Death Note, Pokémon, Life on Mars, Merlin, Kingdom Hearts. )


My housemate has come up with the idea of a reality TV show in which politicians from all the major parties are in an underground bunker during a nuclear holocaust and one is voted out every week. I am trying to think of a pun combining politics and nuclear warfare for the title and failing. It is frustrating. She cannot propose it on Dragons' Den without a good title!

In other news: it was raining this morning, and ten full university buses drove merrily past my stop. I was unimpressed and also half an hour late to the first lecture of the new university year. Auspicious!

But I saw someone with an adorable ladybird umbrella and an amazing person on my flist who shall remain nameless until she's comfortable enough to post to derrenbrownfic wrote Derren/himself/glass, so it was a good day.

I'm easily pleased.

My second year of university is officially over! None of the topics for which I had been preparing came up in the literature exam, hurrah, but I didn't cry or faint and I did actually manage to write things, which means that it went better than expected. (I was terrified about that exam.)

Entirely because of futuresoon, I found myself celebrating with the twenty available episodes of Hetalia: Axis Powers (Axis Powers: Hetalia? Oh, I'm just going to call it Hetalia). They are only five minutes each, and watching them has been one of the most confusing experiences of my life.

I think I may have enjoyed it.

Here are some notes:


- Personifications of countries are adorable. I feel like a slightly awful person for finding it all so cute. World War II is absolutely not supposed to be cute.

- It is educational! Sort of! I didn't know that the prime minister of France proposed a union with England in 1956, and, given the way in which it was portrayed in Hetalia, I'm not likely to forget it. Also, should I ever need to remember historical events in the future, I shall probably find it easier now that I have the option of imagining little anthropomorphic countries acting them out.

- Apparently, England has a flying green rabbit, which I don't quite understand. I have lived here all my life, and my encounters with flying green rabbits have been few. Also, his eyebrows are spectacular.

- Oh, my goodness, the flashback to England giving young America toys in the seventeenth episode is actually really cute. And sad!

- The eighteenth episode: ...did America seriously say 'I choose you, China!'? Is it too early to be considering Pokémon crossovers? (Is it ever too early to be considering Pokémon crossovers?)

- I appear to be 'shipping Germany with Northern Italy. This is not really something I ever expected to think.

- Germany is sort of hot.


(Here, if you are interested in experiencing the bewilderment for yourself, is the first five-minute episode. It is An Experience. (A warning: Hetalia is a very silly series involving anthropomorphised countries. It likes to draw on and absurdly exaggerate national stereotypes. Much of it, although it avoids the particularly unpleasant aspects, is set during World War II. As a result, it has the potential to be really quite offensive, and even if you're not offended you may feel vaguely as if you are doing something wrong by watching it.))

Sorry I've been a bit rubbish at responding to comments recently! I've been panicking about deadlines and such, but now I don't have any more exams until the ninth of June, so I'll be able to spend some time on Livejournal without the horrible WHY ARE YOU NOT WORKING guilt.

Here are some recent events:

- MY HOUSEMATE GAVE ME A MUG FEATURING THE MANIP I MADE OF MYSELF WITH A BULBASAUR AND A ZUBAT.

WHAT ON EARTH? (BEST HOUSEMATE EVER.)

- Because I am not nearly so good a housemate, I forced her to watch the first episode of Pokémon, which had been tragically missing from her childhood. She was unimpressed.

I, on the other hand, wept.

ASH HAS SUCH A GOOD HEART. He has no brain whatsoever, but he has such a good heart.


Today, I watched the first episode of Death Note. I've been spoiled backwards for the series, but it's something I've always been vaguely interested in investigating, because, hey, who doesn't love twisted ethics and insane protagonists?

My main conclusion so far: Light reminds me a bit of my brother. I hope that's just because of the hair and the clothes and the massive intelligence, rather than the megalomania and murder. There was also a very confusing moment at which Ryuuku strongly reminded me of Dr Frank-N-Furter. A Death Note/Rocky Horror crossover would probably not work terribly well.

A Death Note/Silent Hill crossover, on the other hand...

Also, who knew that writing in a notebook could be made so dramatic? (A link to TVTropes would be appropriate here, but I'll spare your afternoon.) And I love that Light screams and falls off his chair when Ryuuku shows up, and then immediately starts saying 'well, yes, of course I was expecting you' in a very controlled voice. You're not fooling anyone, Light.

(Apparently, there are Death Note videogames. How do those work? Is the aim to write names?)


A while ago, I was speculating on what Sharpay of High School Musical would be like with a Death Note (answer: terrifying). dracothelizard commented that she would decorate it, and thus the travesty beneath the cut was born. A couple of you may have seen this before, but I've never actually posted it in an entry.


( Cut to protect you from the sparkles. )


This is also, incidentally, what Edward Cullen's Death Note would look like.

Dear University of Sussex,

You have been ranked the second-best place to study linguistics in the country! Congratulations! Do you:

a) axe the Linguistics department, or
b) not be stupid?

Take your time. This is not a trick question.


( Cut for anger. )


Anyway! I do not like my entries to be entirely full of misery, so now it is time for something happy! AND I HAPPEN TO HAVE JUST THE THING.

A couple of days ago, I received a notice that someone had sent me a letter with insufficient postage, and so I had to pick it up from the handling office. (This, as it turned out, was a good thing, because otherwise it would probably have been crammed through the letterbox and damaged.) In excited anticipation, because man do I love getting post, I set off.

Now, you may have noticed that I am ever-so-slightly prone to exaggeration, and in particular to use of the term 'best thing ever'. Here is the problem with this: when something actually is the best thing ever, how does one express it?

The first sheet I drew out of the envelope was a drawing of Derren Brown in Silent Hill, holding a ukulele.


( Beneath the cut are scans of Derren Brown meeting the Doctor, the Master, Silent Hill, High School Musical and ukuleles. They are all wonderful. )


In conclusion: sos_your_face is amazing.

The opening of the segment on dreams in the second episode of the third series of Trick of the Mind excited me to a quite ridiculous degree. 'Wait, are they... THEY ARE. THAT STATION IS NOT FIVE MINUTES FROM MY HOUSE. DERREN BROWN IS NOT FIVE MINUTES FROM MY HOUSE. DERREN BROWN IS BLINDFOLDING A GUY NOT FIVE MINUTES FROM MY HOUSE.' My housemate (at my term-time home, not at THE HOUSE FIVE MINUTES AWAY FROM THE STATION WHERE DERREN BROWN ONCE WAS YOU GUYS), watching it with me, was unimpressed.

Speaking of my housemate: she has been messing with my mind. I once left a Derren Brown DVD on my bed, went out of the room for half a moment and came back to discover that it had switched positions with his book on my bedside table. The evening before yesterday, I came back to my room after brushing my teeth and froze in the doorway. The 'Specials' boxset was propped up on my bed, so Derren was staring at me as I came in. It was absolutely terrifying. I was too afraid to look away for several minutes, because I had the powerful feeling that, if my glance shifted, Derren Brown would get me.

I hope my housemate is the explanation, anyway, because otherwise Derren Brown himself has been playing with the contents of my room with his mind, and that is an alarming prospect.

(I eventually had to call said housemate in to remove the DVD from my sight so I could enter the room. She said something to the effect of, 'okay, you're obviously tired and insane and you should go to bed'.

I looked over at the bed.

My Something Wicked This Way Comes DVD was propped up against the pillow.

I couldn't stop laughing for about seven minutes.)


Yesterday, ms_treesap and I went to see Slumdog Millionaire. I am now of the opinion that all films would be vastly improved by having the cast dance over the credits. Especially the Silent Hill film. Pyramid Head, with nurses as his backup dancers? You know you want to see it. (Twilight, of course, would also have been improved by massive dances, but this video has already remedied the lack beautifully.)

Earlier, we came across a busker. My reaction was more or less exactly 'OH MY GOD, HE HAS AN ELECTRIC UKULELE. I have to give this man money!' He wasn't even good! It's just the principle of the thing!


Strange revelation: I think I'm going to miss David Tennant's Doctor when he's gone. All these years of never quite forgiving him for not being Christopher Eccleston, and now the end of his run is in sight and I find that I am actually feeling a bit sad. I'm probably going to miss Donna more, but... you guys, David Tennant isn't going to be the Doctor any more. After forty episodes or thereabouts, the title is moving on.

I'm not sure what's brought this on. It is entirely possible that my sudden pre-emptive nostalgia is entirely due to the Tenth Doctor's being the one with whom Derren Brown is travelling (fact), and when Tennant is no longer the Doctor I will not be able to pretend that Derren is in the background of all of the scenes. Well, I suppose I will, but it will not be the same.

House-hunting is a miserable, miserable process, especially when the temperature is below freezing. I spent all of yesterday house-hunting, I'm going to spend all of today house-hunting, and there's a fair chance I'm going to spend all of tomorrow house-hunting as well. Term starts on Monday, and if I don't have a place by then I'm in quite a lot of trouble.

I am not just posting to whine; what I am doing is proposing a cheer-up post. Write little fun snippets of fic in the comments! Attempt the ridiculous crossover you've always wanted to see! Edit Pokémon into screenshots of very serious moments! Post a link to a video that makes you laugh! Just post something fun or something that makes you happy in the comments. It will give me something to look forward to when I get home, and with any luck it will help anyone else who needs cheering-up as well.

Have fun!

Today, two other girls and I had to present to my Approaches to Grammar workshop group. It was not until twenty minutes after it ended that I realised I had concluded the session with '"...and witnessed is a lexical non-finite passive participle!" *JAZZHANDS*'

DEAR SELF: SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH YOU.

Then I went into a Zavvi, saw One Tree Hill DVDs and immediately cracked up laughing. I've never even watched One Tree Hill! There is just something intrinsically hilarious about Chad Michael Murray!


Here is something I just stumbled across in a Notepad document from about half a year ago:

You know what I'd like to see? A Groundhog Day-type fic written from the point of view of someone who isn't the person caught in the time loop. Endless permutations of the same day, the viewpoint character unaware while their companion becomes more and more distressed. I'm just interested in seeing whether it would work, really.

THIS IDEA IS AWESOME. WHY DID I NOT POST ABOUT IT BEFORE? I'm tempted to use it for my Art of Short Fiction assignment, actually.


I cannot stop watching videos of Jensen and Jared on YouTube. These guys are amazing. Here is a clip that particularly amused me: 'Let me rephrase that: what's your odd question?' (At the beginning, Jared is (adorably!) put out because all the questions the fans are asking are for Jensen.)


According to my tag counts, this entry officially makes Supernatural the most talked-about fandom in this journal. I should probably make some sort of ridiculous manip post to celebrate this.

[Poll #1279824]

Chances are I won't be able to watch tonight's Supernatural episode for at least a week. This makes me unhappy. (This also means that I shall be reading my flist with extreme caution, so I may miss things you want me to see. Just so you know.)

On the subject of things that make me happy, however, something about university has really clicked for me at the beginning of this year. I'm sure I'll change my tune when the essays start piling up, but I have caught myself thinking with actual annoyance about the fact that I have Fridays off. STUDYING GRAMMAR IS AWESOME. People look at me with such pity when I say that one of my courses is called 'Approaches to Grammar', and I just want to say, 'No, it's exciting! Would you like to learn about constituent structures?'

(You probably would not like to learn about constituent structures.)

(To be honest, I still wouldn't be able to define a constituent structure if you asked me. BUT GRAMMAR IS STILL EXCITING.)

(Possibly waking up at six or seven in the morning four days a week has driven me mad.)

I am terrified that all of my classmates hate me because I cannot shut up in the language seminars.