Andraste

I saw a thread on meme today where you take your two favourite pairings and swap the partners and see if the results are still pairings you would like. This brought me to the realisation that G'Kar/Magneto is a perfectly cromulant pairing of freedom fighters bonding over REVOLUTION and I would certainly be into it.

On the other hand, Charles Xavier and Londo Mollari would just would not work as a pairing on any level. Charles would find Londo fascinating and entertaining in small doses, but also exhausting, and I just can't see Londo being interested at all. Besides which, if Charles was in the B5 universe somehow he would be far too distracted taking over the Psi Corps to date anyone from there. (Obviously he is intending to run it in the best interests of the telepaths rather than EarthGov! Which I'm sure would work out for the best with absolutely no negative consequences at all ...)

Meanwhile, I do not think Jean Valjean and/or Javert have done anything to deserve being anywhere near any of these people. (Javert deserves lots of things, but being dragged into the complexities of mutant rights and/or a very confusing space station is not it.)

Passed Away got one hundred kudos in less than a week. I think that means that maybe people might like it.

I mean, obviously I already knew that 'happy slashfic involving a popular pairing (albeit it not the most popular pairing) in a fandom that exploded because of a movie' was a guarantee that some people would at least click on it. Even within those parameters, I have never had a story go over that big before. Ever. Not even Charm Offensive, and I never thought I'd write something more popular than that.

(The next time I see someone complaining about the kudos button and how nobody writes feedback any more, I am going to have to try even harder to resist the urge to tell them about the good old days of mailing lists, when I was over the moon if I got six whole comments on one of my stories. Speaking of popular things, I was ecstatic when Ten Thousand Candles got fifteen.)

I have never been so relieved to have people say nice things about something I wrote. (In addition to the hundred kudos, there have also been a bunch of lovely comments and I've seen some recs as well.) Because I really like it and consider it one of my favourite things I've written, but I had no idea if it was actually good or if my inner fifteen-year-old fangirl ("THERE SHOULD BE MORE HAND-HOLDING!") was seriously impairing my judgement. More than a hundred people liking it is good enough for me, though.

I've never had quite that feeling about a story before. When I posted Happiness and Ten Thousand Candles and Charm Offensive and, for that matter, Mackerel Skies, I thought they were great and hoped other people would like them too. When I posted Masquerade I hated it - it wasn't until I went back and reread it later that it became my favourite B5 story of mine. (Along with All Happy Families Are Alike, because Vir and G'Kar making breakfast will never not make me smile.)

After a mere two months of putting it off (and not being anywhere near a movie theatre a lot of the time) I finally went and saw Les Miserables today, since it's on the way out of theatres and I wasn't going to get another chance.

My reluctance to see it was due to my devotion to the stage musical version, which was immensely important to me as a teenager. I still know every line by heart. And, well, I didn't want to be one of Those Fans, but I was terribly worried that I was going to hate it. Especially since Javert is my favourite.

The good news is: I did not hate it! I have a lot of feelings about what worked and what didn't, but I somehow managed to survive Russell Crowe singing without flinging myself into a swollen river. (I may have achieved this by playing the 10th Anniversary Concert version of Stars four times on my train trip home. Er.)

... and now I am going to cut. Below lies a rambling series of thoughts about staging, casting and Valjean/Javert bondage porn. Because that is how you can tell this is my journal.

If you think Les Mis is boring or the concept of Valjean/Javert bondage porn gives you the vapours, I would suggest looking away now.

( Although the part about the casting and staging comes before the part about the bondage, mostly. Also, spoilers, if I am not the last person on the planet to see this. )