Random stuff ...

[apocalypsos]

It's been sunny and about fifty degrees the past couple of days and I've had to sleep through it. This sucks. With my luck, as soon as I get off work for my four-day weekend tomorrow, we'll get five feet of snow dumped on us. *grumbles*

And just for kicks, last night at work I got yelled at for something that was a simple miscommunication by two people who really just wanted to yell at one another and wouldn't have yelled at me in the first place if they'd bothered to ask me my side of the story before they went off. *headdesk* Oh, yeah, I definitely need a weekend like I need to lick cheesecake off Jensen Ackles's chest. (... what? What'd I say?)

unanon brought up a fannish Firefly pet peeve she has, and OMG YES. I'm so right there with that on River referring herself in the third person. I love River fic like crazy (seems fair) and River/Jayne is my other favorite pairing on there (Zoe/Wash being the other one), but the constant "she" and "that girl" drive me up a wall. As someone pointed out over there, she did it once in "Objects in Space" and that was mostly a comeback to Mal, who said, "Does she understand that?" like she wasn't even standing there. It's not like it's a common verbal tic of hers or anything.

And another thing that drives me batty (although I haven't see it much, thank God) is Crazy!River fic that comes after Serenity. Dude, seriously, she's all right. She said she's all right. After she said she was all right, she didn't do anything to indicate she wasn't all right. Hell, in the pilot's chair she was downright lucid, and you can't tell me Mal would let Crazy!River fly his gorram ship.

Don't mind me. Once it was said out loud by someone else, it just set me right the hell off.

Somebody suggest some good music with a beat you can dance or exercise to. I really need some new music. Pleeeeeeease? *bats eyelashes at friends list* ;)

Today's fic rec ...

Happy Hanukah, Veronica, by haleyj_the_bat (Veronica Mars, Veronica/Logan) -- Occurring around the events of the last episode, Veronica starts receiving small meaningful gifts at her door. Sweet, thoughtful, and in the end really freaking hot. It almost made me late for work just trying to finish reading it. :)

Fic recs left: 687 fic recs

Comments

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

s Crazy!River fic that comes after Serenity. Dude, seriously, she's all right. She said she's all right. After she said she was all right, she didn't do anything to indicate she wasn't all right

But the doctor at the beginning says all the subjects show manifest symptoms of schizophrenia, because of what's been done to them, so I think she's more lucid than she used to be, because she no longer has to carry those memories of Miranda, and no, Mal wouldn't let a crazy person fly his ship, but I don't think she's all better either. She's still had her amygdala stripped and has no way of filtering things out. She's still broken in serious ways.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Okay, point. I think the thing that bugs me in fics is when she's exactly the same.

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

*nod*

She's definitely *better*, and those periods probably last longer post-movie, she's just not... normal, and she probably still occasionally has difficulty.

[budclare.livejournal.com]

And it's fairly quiet on the bridge most of the time. It's when everyone is clustered on the bridge yelling at each other that you have to worry a bit. It's not like she's going to have a 'sode without something triggering it. Mostly she'd just wander a bit now and then, I think.

[fyrdrakken]

Kicking this around on unanon's LJ, too. Definitely having Miranda out of her head helped her a lot, but I'm pinning an awful lot of the credit on the way in the movie the crew were understanding and acknowledging that she could perceive things they couldn't, and responding accordingly, rather than for example acting like she was having some sort of psychotic episode when she sensed the Reavers coming to interrupt the bank job. Also agreeing that she may still have problems in chaotic situations -- and for that matter, just because she'd learned by the end of the movie to punch her own kill-button doesn't mean that her subliminal triggers aren't also still in place and potential problems.

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's that as well - instead of Simon talking to her like she's a recalcitrant six-year-old with imaginary friends (when he's not doping her up), they're giving her something to do and relying on her to do it - I think that probably helps both in giving her focus and making her feel safe.

Which isn't to say she won't still have bad days, but I think the way the crew responds to that will be different in the future.

[fyrdrakken]

I credit Mal with a lot of the change in Serenity -- I can very easily picture a realization on his part before the start of the movie in which he mentally reclassified River from "insane" to "dealing with heavy shit" as well as "perceiving things we don't know about." He was in heavy combat, he has to be familiar with PTSD (at least the effects of same), and it was apparently his idea to start using River's abilities rather than just treating her as an unpredictable pet (as the crew were doing through the series). And yeah, it's not just giving her a task (although that has to help) -- it's undoing the Cassandra problem she'd had in the past, of seeing things coming and not being believed by the people she was trying to warn.

She's going to have bad days, and it would be extremely foresighted to see about getting her subliminal controls removed (first the "kill-everyone-now" switch and then the "night-night" switch after she's got enough control to be trusted). She's got issues still, but just the way they're being dealt with now is going to be better for her.

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

I credit Mal with a lot of the change in Serenity -- I can very easily picture a realization on his part before the start of the movie in which he mentally reclassified River from "insane" to "dealing with heavy shit" as well as "perceiving things we don't know about.

*nod*

As early as "Safe" he realizes that she does make an odd kind of sense, and he listens to her in "Objects in Space," without asking a lot of questions, so yeah, I'd say he's come to some conclusions about her abilities and usefulness.

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

Right.

When people are yelling or there are Reavers around or something else freaky is going on... who knows what'll happen? But as long as she's in familiar surroundings and the crew *coughJaynecough* don't spook her, she'll probably be mostly okay.

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

I see your point, but changing that would mean coming up with an entirely new way of writing River, one that hasn't been signposted by Joss at all. Still without filters, and also still amazingly gifted presumably, and also still capable of being frighteningly lethal, but without whatever part of her craziness was linked to the Miranda thing. I wouldn't know where to start.

It's also possible that some of the habits and patterns of being crazy would stick with her...

[callmesyd.livejournal.com]

changing that would mean coming up with an entirely new way of writing River, one that hasn't been signposted by Joss at all.

Baby, it's fanfic. This is new? *runs!*

People are gonna have to try, though, if they want to set things after Serenity. AFAIK, Joss is done with it. No new series (DAMN YOU SCI FI CHANNEL YOU LET ME DOWN), no sequels, and I've heard somethink about him revisiting his other baby. The one from Cali, with the demons an' stuff. :>