I have no explanation for this. There is no one I can blame it on. My brain simply decided G'Kar + babysitting = awesome, and I had to write it or go crazy. And then, obviously, inflict it on you all.

I think I'll ascribe it to my thesis making me crazy.

I promise, one day I will write the slew of fics that bridge the end of "Little Dreams" with these vignettes I keep getting hit with. It will probably be after graduation.

Title: Biological Inefficiencies
Author: icepixie
Series: Closet Idealism 'verse. Since I am apparently incapable of writing anything else non-academic right now.
Timeline: Roughly a year and a half before "Language Lessons." Actually, you know, I might as well start putting dates on these things, since I made a timeline for this AU and currently have no fewer than eight unfinished fics set at various points along said timeline littering my hard drive; God knows what order they'll all be written in. Let's say near the end of 2265.
Summary: "All of your biological inefficiencies are made up for by the fact that your friends can babysit this early in the child's life." Ivanova/Garibaldi, G'Kar.
Wordcount: 672

( Under here )

Quick break from my thesis, because I'm trying to work something out in my head and I think my brain is about to overheat. (It's about her redefinition of "place" and how that ties into the limitations of cartography and...it's complicated.)

Anyway. I took a longing look at my fic folder, which I won't have time to touch until after graduation, alas. But just for the hell of it, and because I like seeing others' writing processes (and so thought I should share my own), I thought I would post this snippet from an untitled plotty fic set in the "Closet Idealism" universe, as well as the poem from whence it derives.

First, the poem:( Sonnet XLIII )

And the ( fic snippet )

Back to my thesis.

I always make icons with the intent that they be shareable, but I don't always remember to say so. Thus, here are all the B5 icons I've made in case anyone wants to use them (most are old, a couple are new). If you're so inclined, my username in the icon comments section of any you use would be lovely.

( 26 underneath )

Title: Language Lessons
Summary: Susan and Michael discover what their friends have been teaching their daughter. Mentally, I'm setting it a few years on in the Closet Idealism 'verse, but it stands alone. No spoilers for the show.
Notes: bessemerprocess is entirely to blame for this. I accept no responsibility.

( I have committed kidfic. I am so ashamed. )

I somehow have started imagining a whole alternative timeline set in the universe from Closet Idealism/The Little Dreams We Dream. First, people *glances at bessemerprocess* were suggesting a sequel in which Ivanova and Garibaldi send Bester to a very bad end, which is certainly fun to contemplate. Okay, I can deal with that; it could basically continue on from the last fic, and I can cope with linearity.

Then suddenly this plotty thing that involves political intrigue and a visit to Russia showed up in my head and refused to vacate. (I have a really cute scene involving Susan being all, "Snow! I missed snow so much in space!" and running around catching snowflakes on her tongue in my head. It's so cute it might give me diabetes. Although, dude, PLOT? WTH is happening to me?) And there's a comedy ficlet involving G'Kar and a baby. (A baby! I hate kids! I don't even like kidfic very much! Argh!) And then an AU version of the finale, of course, because this timeline just goes on forever. Thankfully, I have not managed to drag it out to the material covered in "Deconstruction of Falling Stars," because that would break my brain. Although now I have the line, "And Ivanova the Strong and Garibaldi the Cunning, who destroyed the diabolical Bester with holy explosives" running through my head, and dammit, I did just extend it into DoFS. The kid is definitely still there in AU!SiL, BTW, so I guess she's a permanent feature of this universe I'm building in my head.

So, yeah. That's been my night, in between reading The Mill on the Floss.* How have you all been?


* Maggie found religion and decided to become an ascetic. Oy. But there are hints that she's not fully committed to denying herself everything she possibly can, so maybe she'll come back from the brink! Although she's also apparently heading for a Romeo and Juliet-style relationship with a young man from another family, so this could be bad. But only if she figures out he's totally in love with her, which she might not! George Eliot is tricksy like that. I think that's why I like her.

So, uh, I was not planning on a sequel to "Closet Idealism," and then one day a couple of scenes appeared in my head, and the people in them told me in no uncertain terms that actually, I was going to be writing a sequel, thank you very much. Susan is kind of scary when she doesn't get her way, you know?

Title: The Little Dreams We Dream (Are All We Can Really Do)
Author: icepixie
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 9,089
Summary: Susan hasn't been as careful with her heart as she should've been. AU. Ivanova/Garibaldi. Angsty, but I do promise that the epigraph is pertinent. Sequel to "Closet Idealism."
Timeline/Spoilers: This is significantly less canon-adherent than its predecessor--I compressed and reordered a few events to suit my needs, and completely changed others--but still spoils all of season four and one or two things about the first few episodes of season five.
Note: One scene in particular, as well as a few scattered lines of narration, owes a debt of gratitude to mylittleredgirl's "Dead Souls," which you should totally go read, because it's amazing.

( It has been seventeen days since her life took the express transport to hell. )

Somewhere in the wastes of a B5 tie-in novel (shut up shut up shut up it was ONE CENT I could not resist), there is a Narn named L'Kan. I have obviously been reading too much critical theory recently, because my first thought was something along the lines of, "Hmm. L'Kan. Lacan. I wonder if this Narn is interested in mirrors, /es, or Others."

...Anyway. I'll be over here in the GIANT NERD corner.

Title: Five Things That Never Happened to Susan Ivanova
Author: icepixie
Rating: PG
Timeline/Spoilers: These take place over the same five years as the series, with (very) roughly one for each season. Spoilers through season four in numbers three and four; number five is meant to be read with the events of S4 in mind, even if they aren't directly referenced.
Wordcount: 1243
Summary: Scenes from five lives Susan Ivanova never lived. Contains angst, romance, action, UST, gen, Ivanova/Marcus, Ivanova/Garibaldi, and Ivanova/Talia in various combinations.

( Five Things )

1. I am really not all that fond of writing angst.

2. So much goes down in S4 of B5 that slotting Certain Things into it is really freaking hard.

(Yeah, so, some scenes for a sequel to "Closet Idealism" hit me on the head last week. However, they're kind of scattered from beginning to end, and I have no idea how to get from one to the next. Sadly, getting from one to the next requires AAAAANGST and writing around CAAAAANON, neither of which, as you can see from my list above, I am any good at. But I quite like the ending I've written, so here I am staring at the computer screen until I find a way to link everything, by god.)

*

In other news, someone has cobbled together a soundtrack for the BBC miniseries North & South. (There was never one released, but whoever did this took some of the music from the series, stripped the dialogue, and uploaded it. It sounds fantastic.) I've wanted a soundtrack for this ever since I saw it two or three years ago, and now I have it!

As rowdycamels might say, the shrine is complete. I have finished my Susan Ivanova mood theme, and in addition to using it myself, I am offering it to the internets at large. Behold!



Click here or on the graphic for the zip file.

In addition to the usual 132 moods, I've included a folder full of alternates so you can mix and match as you desire. There are something like 90 alternates in there (um...I had a hard time choosing for some moods?), so you've got lots to pick from if you want to customize.

Screencaps are by the incredibly generous fyrjurai (whose post linking to caps from all five seasons is here), with a few of my own sprinkled in here and there. Given how divorced all the images are from context, it shouldn't spoil anyone who's making his or her way through the series for the first time--I mean, really, is it a surprise that Susan Ivanova is "pessimistic" or "angry" at some point in the future?--but caveat spectator.

A comment credit in your userinfo if you take this would be lovely. Enjoy!

Okay, I just realized that the Minbari belief in the transmigration of souls is completely and utterly Platonic. Minbari souls are a freaking Platonic form. I feel like an idiot. I really need to get around to reading The Republic someday soon.

( Spoilers--and yes, there is a reason buried in here for why it made me realize what I wrote above. Don't click if you haven't seen the whole series. )

I am making some progress on my Ivanova mood theme, but the default moods are hampering me. Ivanova is not, as a rule, "hyper," "cheerful," "nervous," or "lethargic," but there are not nearly enough synonyms for "grumpy," "annoyed," etc. to cover all the irritation she expresses on a regular basis. And there needs to be about ten versions of "pessimistic." I mean, really. And "dubious." There definitely needs to be a "dubious" option.

( Movements of Fire and Shadow )

( Title redacted due to spoileriness )

( The Wheel of Fire )

( Objects in Motion )

( Objects at Rest )

And now I have no more B5. WOES. Well, I have the movies, I guess. And Crusade, roughly half of which I don't think I saw when it was airing. But it's not the same.

I think I have a three-way tie for "My Favorite TV Series EVER" between this, Northern Exposure, and Slings & Arrows. I am basically turning right around and rewatching it all the way through, because I know I missed details here and there, and links between episodes across seasons that will become clearer the second time around. And then--or perhaps simultaneously--I am going to attempt to finish all these fics lying around on my hard drive.

Plus, you know, all this work I still have to do this summer. Er. Maybe this will go very slowly...

For the record, getting inside Marcus's head is kind of like being inside the mind of a really, really excited puppy who is extremely well-read. I don't think I want to repeat the experience. (The first person who notes my resemblance to an excitable, highly literate juvenile canine gets swatted with a rolled-up newspaper.)

Title: Amo, amas, I love a lass
Author: icepixie
Spoilers: Through "Endgame"
Word Count: 2,419
Rating: PG for the odd word
Pairing: Ivanova/Marcus. Well, according to Marcus, anyway.
Summary: "He wonders how many times one can fall in love with a person before it becomes impossible to do so again. He strongly suspects rocks will melt and seas go dry before he finds out." Marcus and Ivanova over eighteen months.
Note: Some dialogue taken from "Messages from Earth, "Between the Darkness and the Light," and "Endgame."

( Can I decline a nymph divine? )

Maybe it's just late, but this is cracking me up. I was reading this page, and I came across the following sample of what might happen if the Doctor appeared on Babylon 5:

Kosh: "Who are you?"
Doctor: "Exactly!"
K: "Who are you?"
D: "Indeed!"
K: "Who are you?"
D: "Right again!"
K: "Who are you?"
D: "Have we met?"
K: "Who--ah, screw it!"

HEE.

ETA: Also, the Chekov/Bester one! BWAHAHAHAHA!

Twelve-sided musical note dice.

I'm envisioning a board game involving a grand staff as the board. Hmmm.

*

( A group of comments on 'In the Kingdom of the Blind,' 'A Tragedy of Telepaths,' 'Phoenix Rising,' and 'The Ragged Edge' )

*

I checked out several books of critical essays on sci-fi TV today. (I know, it's awesome. I hate the building, but I heart the university library's collection.) I haven't gotten too far into them yet, but I did read through the B5 sections of a couple. One woman makes a compelling argument about JMS's use of epic and novel qualities in the show, and it made me realize that, oh, THAT's why I don't really care for episodes like "Deconstruction of Falling Stars"--I don't really like most qualities of epic. I far prefer the novelistic side. She also has some good stuff to say about the ways the show sometimes falls into the trap of human exceptionalism--basically elaborating on the Planet of Hats trope--and also notes that while the show critiques capitalism when the problems come from Earth, but sidesteps doing the same to the Alliance, which is implicitly based on capitalist trade. (I would be more willing to assign that to lack of time than anything else, but it's an interesting observation nonetheless.) This particular collection is recent enough (2008) to include material on the new BSG, so I'm curious to see how it gets treated.

YOU GUYS. mylittleredgirl wrote me twisted AU S5 Ivanova/Garibaldi fic, and it is incredible.

READ, I COMMAND THEE.