mostly random

[vaznetti]

I've found a channel that shows early Due South -- from the Ray Vecchio years, which were the years I watched. And I've completely forgotten just how slashy that show was. Last night's episode had Fraser in drag dancing with Ray at a Catholic school dance. Usually, you have to go to fanfic for that kind of thing, but not Due South. I never got into the habit of watching it when they had Ray Kowalski, because I was in the UK during those years, but I hear that it got even slashier. How is that even possible? BH used to call Angel the gayest show that ever gayed (my husband is a secret Spike/Angel shipper), but Due South is in another class altogether.

Actually, in tonight's episode they're squabbling again. But I'm sure it won't last. And I think Fraser's still wearing eyeshadow.

* * *

There's an archive for Supernatural crossovers now, on the model of Twisting the Hellmouth. TtH is one of my guilty pleasure sites, since although the stories are not really all that good, usually, they do satisfy, in their way. The SPN site is, of course, a great deal smaller, and doesn't look like quite such a guilty pleasure: right now it's got a lot of summaries with typos and portentious questions.

I think I may feel obliged to join and put my stories up there, though. I mean, I like SPN crossovers, they like SPN crossovers, what do we have to lose? It just seems like an alien culture, after all this time on LJ, where I can tailor my experience to my elitist bitch preferences.

* * *

Not unrelated, as I was walking home tonight it occurred to me that one of the Three Portions of An is called Hel, and a story with Sam, Dean, Rood of An and a whole lot of pigs would probably be extremely funny. A caper, I think. Or possibly a brawl.

Comments

[hossgal.livejournal.com]

Usually, you have to go to fanfic for that kind of thing, but not Due South.

*busts up laughing*

Cesperanza (sp? she of the evil elves) pretty much ruined me for canon dS, and for many other decent fic writers in dS. She wrapped the crack in something that resembled logic and sense and then hung shiny blinky lights and a gilded copy of one of those Bleeding Heart icons on it, and said, hey, presto, you're a mango!

...ummm. Perhaps you had to be there.

Anyway.

right now it's got a lot of summaries with typos and portentious questions.

*busts uplaughing again* Then obviously adding your stories would only improve things, and so you should.

one of the Three Portions of An is called Hel

...blast you.

Never Get Out of the Boat: Five Hells Sam and Dean Never Marched Into

I did NOT need more plot bunnies.

*stomps off, muttering*

(Although, I might need suggestions for Hells. Gaiman and Carey's, for Sandman/Lucifier, check. One from Diane Duane's Door into Shadow, perhaps. And of course a classical one - but alas, for I've not read Milton, and have not the time to do so this year.)

Tell me, the young soldier who rode into the crack in the Forum, was that considered a ride into Hell?

*wanders off again, considering*

- hg

[vaznetti]

Curtius? (the guy the Lacus Curtius was named for) It's not perfectly clear, but one interpretation is that he ends up in the underworld, since the earth literally swallows him up. He's some kind of sacrifice, I think.

You know you want to write that story. Especially the part with Rood and the pigs. And the bit where Dean bitches at Sam for not getting them to the right Hell. Again.

I have read some of Cesperanza's Due South fic, long long ago. It was all hysterically funny and at the same time touching.

She wrapped the crack in something that resembled logic and sense and then hung shiny blinky lights and a gilded copy of one of those Bleeding Heart icons on it, and said, hey, presto, you're a mango!

This is quite possibly the best description of that kind of not-quite-crack that I have ever read.

[hossgal.livejournal.com]

I *could* google it, but what's "Lacus Curtius"?

If it's the same guy, the oracles said that the earthquakes would end when Rome sacrificed its most precious treasure. So all the nobles came down and dumped jewels and gold and statues and scrolls and all sorts of stuff into the crack, but it only made things worse. Then this young cavalry officer saddled up and rode into the crevice. The crack closes, the earthquakes cease.

For me, the story is tainted by knowing that Rome's cav was mostly foreign-born, people who were doing their twenty years to get the title (and privledges) of citizen. But still, I get choked up over it, it's that kind of story.

And the bit where Dean bitches at Sam for not getting them to the right Hell. Again.

Yes, that.

(blast you)

- hg

[cofax7]

Heh.

What goes around comes around, after all. (Says the woman who ended up writing unicorns for you...)

[hossgal.livejournal.com]

You hush. They were very fine unicorns and many other people loved them even before I saw them.

(And aggg. Things to do! School and job things to do! Many other wips not yet done! Shiny new and difficult story! Aggg!)

...you're laughing, aren't you.

(*g*)

- hg

[vaznetti]

Hm. The Lacus Curtius is the hole you're thinking of. Livy has two reasons for the name -- first, that it's named for Mettius Curtius, a Sabine cavalryman who gets trapped in a swampy area in the Forum when the Sabines attack the Romans after the whole "Rape of the Sabine Women" incident. The second is nearer to what you have:

In this year [c. 360 BCE], owing either to an earthquake or the action of some other force, the middle of the Forum fell in to an immense depth, presenting the appearance of an enormous cavern. Though all worked their hardest at throwing earth in, they were unable to fill up the gulf, until at the bidding of the gods inquiry was made as to what that was in which the strength of Rome lay. For this, the seers declared, must be sacrificed on that spot if men wished the Roman republic to be eternal. The story goes on that Marcus Curtius, a youth distinguished in war, indignantly asked those who were in doubt what answer to give, whether anything that Rome possessed was more precious than the arms and velour of her sons. As those around stood silent, he looked up to the Capitol and to the temples of the immortal gods which looked down on the Forum, and stretching out his hands first towards heaven and then to the yawning chasm beneath, devoted himself to the gods below. Then mounting his horse, which had been caparisoned as magnificently as possible, he leaped in full armour into the cavern. Gifts and offerings of fruits of the earth were flung in after him by crowds of men and women.
(Livy, 7.5)

For me, the story is tainted by knowing that Rome's cav was mostly foreign-born, people who were doing their twenty years to get the title (and privledges) of citizen.

Not in this period: in this period, the cavalry was composed of the sons of the wealthier Roman families and especially the sons of senators. That's why the highest wealth class in Rome was the "Equites" -- it just means "Horsemen." (The only difference between senators and equites in the Republic is that senators have political careers, and equites don't.)

::takes off geek hat and runs away::

[vaznetti]

and obviously, that's "valour" although the idea of the Romans sacrificing the "velour" of their sons cracks me up to no end.

[hossgal.livejournal.com]

I like the Marcus Curtis story better. *g*

And oooo - did not know that the cav was still Roman at that point. *scribbles furious notes*

You bring your geek hat any time you like.

- hg

[vaznetti]

And oooo - did not know that the cav was still Roman at that point.

It was until the mid-second century BCE, and of course there were always scouts and dispatch riders attached to each legion. But the story would have meant something very different if it had been an auxiliary cavalryman.