strange bedfellows

china_shop asked me to talk about mermaids! I'm putting this entirely under cuts due to length, using multiple cuts to provide a bit of an overview. The overall post is ~1800-1900 words (hard to be precise when links are involved), and was one of the most fun to write for this meme. ^_^

( I've always loved fantasy and the ocean. Does that mean I've always loved mermaids? )

( how Tumblr art and a probably-offhand comment from Seanan McGuire combined to form the current vortex of ALL THE MERMAID FEELS (includes links to a handful of pictures) )

( how the 'mermaid-as-monster' is a key part of what I'm enjoying most about writing my mermaid Newsflesh AU )

( wrapping up: in which I now collect mermaid pictures and recently got really distracted by an...intriguing gifset )

( Footnotes 1 (why my mer! story is fanfic, not original) and 2 (attempting to expand slightly on handling mer!George's sexuality through a human lens) )

( Footnotes 3 (additional info about that gifset; its source is not REMOTELY safe for work, but this footnote is...probably SFW?) and 4 (a link to info about the woman behind the studio producing said source material )

balsamandash gave me a few prompt options, including "Talk about Toby/Newsflesh crossovers. Or Incryptid/Newsflesh crossovers. Or Indexing/Newsflesh crossovers. Other Seanan/Mira media and Newsflesh, cross the streams."

I spent a while before I started this post thinking about whether Newsflesh can comfortably fuse with any of Seanan's other work but InCryptid in my head (emphasis on in my head; if anyone else crossed it with any of her other worlds, I would pounce on it), but nothing else clicks conceptually for me. My brain doesn't want to interlock the Newsflesh worldbuilding with the magic in Toby's world, or with the rather different mad science in Parasitology, and so on.

But InCryptid is internally scientific enough that it's all about creatures existing quietly alongside us naturally, so I can sort of work with that. Which is understating things, given that my Newsflesh/InCryptid crossover where Georgia and Shaun meet the Aeslin mice is one of my very favorite things that I've ever written (and is far and away the most widely-clicked thing I have on AO3, which amuses me). So that opens up all kinds of possibilities--albeit more for other people than for me, probably. There's literally a whole world alongside the known one, mostly hidden from everyone but cryptozoologists and the occasional person who stumbles over a cryptid and a) notices and b) lives to tell the tale.

For the record, this remains one of my favorite exchanges that I have ever written in any fandom/medium, and since it's relevant, I'm going to shamelessly drop it here: ( but not so shamelessly that I won't put it under a cut. 170 words under here )

---

How the Rising would have affected various cryptid species is fascinating. InCryptid give us some impressive reptilian beasties like lindworms that might help keep the population of animal zombies in the wild at bay, and any species that can induce petrification could be handy (by which I probably just mean "have an improved chance of survival", since I doubt the presence of zombies would make them more likely to reveal themselves to the world at large; it might just make their small, insular communities seem even less suspicious to others).

And there's the question of whether some species would be susceptible to KA or not: outwardly part-mammal/part-bird griffins (who appear to be mammals, according to the Field Guide), or species like the wadjets, where the sexual dimorphism is so extreme that one gender appears mammalian and one appears reptilian. Or finfolk, with their peculiar life cycle...

Cuckoos...one shudders to think (and presumes they're not susceptible). Could they influence KA zombies? o_o

(Seanan has created a LOT of scary creatures across her worlds. For me, cuckoos rank pretty high in the "most terrifying" list. This in no way keeps Sarah from being my favorite InCryptid character. *g*)

So...yeah. Lots of possibilities there!

Personally, at the moment I have two ideas rolling around in my head (and have some wordcount for both, although they're both mentally filed away as "stuff I've written down but don't really expect to finish"). I have a few pages of Rose Marshall and Shaun Mason meeting each other, which would not be a long story if it were ever finished, and a handful of pages of Verity Price meeting Georgia and Shaun via some sort of time travel. (I have no idea how I would justify that, only that given the glimpses of other...dimensions?...we're given, it could surely be handwaved.) What I have involves Verity going forward in time; I also keep entertaining the idea of the Masons going back in time to NYC during the summer of the Rising (which would be horrifying in all kinds of ways for them, starting with the fact that yes, they're as crowd-socialized as it's possible for them to be in their world, but that would mean nothing compared to pre-Rising populations in a large city, and continuing with the fact that their brother would still be alive, and while KA itself would presumably still break out, they could be in a position to warn their parents somehow and save Phil's life, thus essentially guaranteeing that they'd never meet each other).

Neither version is ever likely to see the light of day (and there are ZERO words written on the latter). But it would be interesting, for all that in many ways it'd be more a case of the transplanted character(s) trying to deal with the vastly different world, as opposed to an exploration of cryptids.

Tom McRae has announced his next album, due out in May. *^^* "Speaking of the departure from his previous, more stripped back albums, Tom says: 'as we recorded the album I had the image of the band gathered round a piano in a post-apocalyptic bar, singing our hearts out as the fires rage around us... also handily blocking the exits and stopping the crowd from leaving.' That the album is released on the eve of the UK General election is also no coincidence. 'We're sleep walking into a world ruled by oligarchs, where tech giants monitor and exploit our every thought, where governments and banks collude against us, and hyper-caffeinated teenagers design software to destroy any remaining jobs', says McRae, expanding on just some of the record's subject matter. 'We're going to need something to sing along to when the shit finally comes down'."

The National Post (not a source I usually find myself linking): "Toronto tunnel mystery solved: Two ‘blue-collar guys’ dug hole for ‘man cave,’ police say."


Cute

"15+ Before-And-After Photos Of Cats Growing Up".

"23 Chubby Puppies Mistaken For Teddy Bears".

One of the cutest things I've seen on Tumblr in ages (and I say this as someone with an extensive "cute" tag!): this puppy trying to mimic its person's howl.

"20 hedgehogs who will make your day better".


Useful

Via Twitter: this page on the IMDb lets you search two shows/movies for people who've worked on both, or search two people's info to see if they've worked on anything together.

At the OTW, "10 Fair Use Misconceptions".

At Baking Bites: "How to Use Tea in Baked Goods".


Social Justice

I loved thefourthvine's recent post on women (or people in general) supporting each other: "Team Angry Cat".

At the Daily Dot: "The one basic thing men still don't seem to understand about women".

Via many people, David Gerrold, a writer from Star Trek: TOS, responds to someone's complaints about social justice destroying sci-fi. "I was there. I know what Gene Roddenberry envisioned. He went on at length about it in almost every meeting. He wasn't about technology, he was about envisioning a world that works for everyone, with no one and nothing left out. Gene Roddenberry was one of the great Social Justice Warriors. You don't get to claim him or his show as a shield of virtue for a cause he would have disdained. […] Star Trek was about social justice from day one -- the stories were about the human pursuit for a better world, a better way of being, the next step up the ladder of sentience. The stories weren't about who we were going to fight, but who we were going to make friends with. It wasn't about defining an enemy -- it was about creating a new partnership. That's why when Next Gen came along, we had a Klingon on the bridge."

As he did last year, author Jim Hines has been hosting a series of posts from various people on different aspects of representation. This year's first post is "Exponentially Hoping", by Merc Rustad, and there doesn't seem to be a tag for the essays. But there've been a few so far, and while it looks like this week there aren't any guest posts scheduled, there will be more coming up.

Via Facebook: "Think of the children" at Queer Femme Mama, in response to the updated health and sex education curriculum in Ontario and to Senator Donald Plett's transphobic amendment to Bill C-279 that, as the post says, "effectively bar[s] trans people from public bathrooms". "Because whether I like it or not, being a parent lends me some sort of credibility and authority to speak on issues that are relevant to children. And it gives me an opportunity to disrupt the bigots who use ridiculous “think of the children” logic to deny people’s human rights and promote discrimination."