(no subject)

We finished playing our Clone Wars campaign about a year ago, and I thought perhaps my clone feelings would fade. And then Debi and I finished watching the Clone Wars a few months ago, and I thought perhaps then my clone feelings would fade.

Nope! it turns out!

Anyway, I made a Clone Wars vid, it's about created humans and free will and the panopticon.

Title: Velodrome
Music: "Velodrome," by Dessa (lyrics)

"Velodrome" (Watch on Vimeo)

(on Tumblr) (on AO3)

(no subject)

Possibly I should have suspected from the title Prince of Darkness that this particular Barbara Michaels gothic was going to be a little more wild than usual, but, in my defense, ALL Barbara Michaelses have titles like Witch and Into the Darkness and quite often they're just about, like, coming into your own as proprietor of a small jewelry business!

NOT PRINCE OF DARKNESS.

The first half of the book focuses on Our Hero, Shady Peter Stewart, a British ex-con who has lied his way into a small American town for the purpose of revenge gaslighting local heiress/folklore scholar Katherine More into a nervous breakdown over her suspiciously dead ex-boyfriend.

...except when Peter gets there he finds that someone ELSE has gotten in AHEAD of him and is ALREADY attempting to gaslight Katherine More into a nervous breakdown??

Also, all the white people in town are super racist and appear to be part of a creepy Satanist cult.

Not one to be easily discouraged when he's got a plan in mind, Peter gamely spends a hundred and fifty pages trying to simultaneously complete his own Gaslight Katherine More plan while also catching and exposing whoever ELSE is attempting to Gaslight Katherine More. There's probably logic in there somewhere.

Meanwhile, he halfheartedly romances Katherine's beautiful blonde cousin, for scheming purposes, and much less halfheartedly attempts to befriend the town's most Racist Cultist's Dreamy Chauffeur, Hilary Jackson, an incredibly handsome six-foot-tall young black man with "a profile like that of the Apollo on Olympia" that Peter CANNOT stop going on about.

At one point, Hilary catches Peter breaking into the stables, knocks him over, captures his wrists, and sits on him and Peter's literally like "hey you're sitting on my diaphragm, mind shifting positions? >:D"

And then they have a pleasant evening of consensual grappling in the forest.

HILARY: I never spent such a crazy night. I catch you trying to steal a horse, and ten minutes later you're teaching me judo, or whatever it is. Crazy.
PETER: I impress some people that way.

Alas, when Peter, emboldened by this bonding experience, tries to recruit Hilary further into his plans, Hilary is like 'look, all I want is to survive this horrible racist cult leader boss long enough to pay off my college loans, I am not getting involved in your nonsense.'

Anyway, Peter fakes his own injury so he can move into Katherine's house, and then catches and exposes the local Horrible Ablist Stereotype (Peter's narration, backtracking wildly and unsuccessfully: "most disabled people are very nice! only this disabled stablehand is a walking nightmare who oozes menace!") impersonating a ghost, and then does his own job impersonating a ghost, ( and that's when things REALLY start going haywire )