The Mezzanine

snowflake_challenge wants me to resurrect an old meme from LiveJournal days. The only one I can think of is an icon post.

So here goes:

In this post, talk with your icons, and *only* your icons. Post early, post often, and respond to whomever you want. Just leave a dot or a dash in the comment field because DW says you can't post a blank comment.

(Skipping days 7 and 8 because I'm thoroughly stumped, and don't want it to stop me from doing the rest of the challenge.)

So this challenge is for me to talk about how awesome I am! Which… I don't want to sound like I'm bragging, but then I am totally about to brag…


I taught myself a bunch of stuff!

I taught myself Latin. And how to crochet. And how to make really nice loaves of bread. And how to play accordion.

Teaching myself new skills is really fun! I should totally do it more often.


I write cool BtVS fanfic!

So I suck at plot. And I'm pretty crap at romance. But I am good at short, character-heavy gen fic featuring lots of sneaky references to canon. And I'm also good at fun and silly fics in unusual formats.

These are some of my best fics.


I'm a great GM!

I am very good at running RPGs that are not Dungeons and Dragons. (I do play D&D, because it's hard not to in this hobby. But I'm not very good at the rules.) I come up with really fun NPCs, lots of interesting situations, and cool twists and turns.

It takes a lot of effort, but so do most worthwhile things.


I'm a great mum!

I love my kids. And I try to introduce them to fun stuff that they'll enjoy, and to listen to them and consider their feelings, and teach them skills they need to know, and spend time with them, and apologise to them (which… I need to do a lot).

I suck at imaginative play, but I'm pretty good at the other stuff.



There you go. I am thoroughly awesome. And so are you guys! Please, tell me the things that make you awesome, as I am very interested in you all.

For this challenge, I thought I'd take a minute to tell you all about my most recent TV discovery: Dark Matter.

This show is by one of the Stargate writers, which is how I noticed it. It's also (so far) entirely awesome.



The premise goes something like this:

Somewhere in the galaxy, on a far-future spaceship, a bunch of humans wake up from stasis, without their memories. They have no idea of who they are or why they're there – and they name themselves after the order in which they woke up.


Our main characters are:

One – the optimistic idealist, who sees the best in everyone (especially himself)

Two – the leader (and main woman in the cast)

Three – basically Jayne Cobb

Four – samurai sword-fighting, die-with-honour guy (who is dishonourable, thoroughly untrustworthy and likely to stab you in your sleep)

Five – teenage girl, who's very good with technology

Six – strong silent type (and actually quite nice)

Android – supposed to be an emotionless robot; actually more like Kryten (in that she gets jealous, worried, etc)



They spend a lot of the time flying around the galaxy, trying to figure out who they are, and trying to avoid the many, many people who want them dead for reasons they can't remember.

It's really fun! And well-worth checking out if you're a sci-fi fan.

(Yes, I did Snowflake Day 2. But in someone else's comments section.)

The challenge asked who I'd like to have dinner with, out of one of my fandoms. I've always found this question quite tricky, as I'm not sure I'd like to hang out with any characters I like watching, and I wouldn't want to hang out with most show creators either, because we'd have nothing to talk about.

First, I thought through my main fandom: Buffy. But I don't think I'd actually have much in common with any of the characters, and none of them are particularly good at socialising with people they don't know. Stilted small-talk with people who'd rather be saving the world? No thanks.

So I considered my other shows.

Farscape? None of those characters are at all stable. And most of them are quite rude (if not openly hostile).

West Wing? More people who suck at small talk - just in a highly intellectual way. (Which: me too! But our interests wouldn't overlap at all, so we'd have no shared areas of conversation.)

Leverage? Hmm... close. I'd love to hang out with Hardison - he's a total geek, and we definitely have a shared interest in Doctor Who, at least. But I'd also be paranoid that they were trying to con me in some way.

This challenge is hard, guys.

So, finally I've settled on the only person it could ever be: Hercule Poirot. He's considerate, he's good at conversation, and he's a total gourmet - so as long as he picks the restaurant, I am guaranteed a good meal with a charming man who will enthusiastically insist I try every single appetiser.