They do say that incompetent people are far more confident of their ability than those who are actually competent...

A lot of 14-year-olds are that confident, too.

The story does seem to have an adolescent (or, at best, untested) view of both biology and physical and emotional intimacy, and also LIFE.

"I am actually very well with it" is gonna stay in my head for a while. As well as the scene where it sounded like Cas left his womb on Dean's dick and walked away. Twofer, she is.

How do people feel about characters that either didn't get a full name in canon being written into AUs, or got a name that (Lucifer!) just isn't going to slide (Death!) into (Alpha!) normal conversation. I think 97% of the attempts I've seen have been clumsy, and the attempts that include actor names (or when characters use their actor names as pseuds) are jarring in the extreme.

(Still agog at Alexander Northman, but there are many things worse with that story...)

It can get hella awkward. I dislike when Lucifer keeps his name in a non-angel AU and then the characters all have to comment on how messed up his parents were to name him after the devil. Just call him Luke. There was one cute one that called him Morgenstern. I've seen Death get some normal names like Mortimer, but then gets descriptions that fit both the character and the actor to clue you in. Awkward is when the writer expounds upon how the character got the nickname that is actually the characters name.

I love all the pre-Rapture names for Castiel's vessel.

But in a way, having to come up with a new name for a character can sometimes be a way to disguise an obvious villain, and sometimes the sussing out can be fun.

I'm a bit miffed at maychorian for posting that Coming Down on a Sunny Day is complete, but only posting a fan mix that she says she does when she's halfway through a project. My inference is that she's done the first draft and is now editing. So frustrating, I was very excited to see the word "complete" and have it not mean what I thought it should mean. Evil mean tease.

In the past month I've seen at least two stories I follow "complete" with "I'm not finishing this, I hate this, it makes me feel worthless, what I really want to do is delete this." chapters.

Ah, I almost prefer abandonment.

Shit, man, after a couple stories with spoilery author's notes (I know, it's not spoilery if it's the story, but still...) I missed the author's notes that said "I am Cas, Balthazar is my ex, and Dean is this guy I knew that I slept with but was seeing someone else. Clearly the pregnancy thing had to be changed up because Cas can't get pregnant, but my ex beat me so badly I mis..." The rest isn't important. Rest assured, that was not an SPN story, not in any rational meaning of any of those words. I did start skimming when Dean pulled his truck into an illegal parking spot and wasn't concerned if it would be towed, but still...

The breadth of choices people make fascinates me only in the abstract, it turns out.

And now I having a serious issue with characterization. The next time I read a fic in which I see John Reese of Person of Interest portrayed as a possessive, large and in charge, stereotypical "Alpha Male" I'm gonna leave a review asking what the author has ever seen on screen that makes 'em think that is a reasonable theory of character for him.

The next time I read a fic in which I see John Reese of Person of Interest portrayed as a possessive, large and in charge, stereotypical "Alpha Male" I'm gonna leave a review asking what the author has ever seen on screen that makes 'em think that is a reasonable theory of character for him.

HA. HA.

John Reese is a character who is desperate to be owned and given purpose and told what to do so that he can give his undying loyalty. At best you still could consider him possessive, but possessive only of his Squishy (aka reclusive billionaire). And that's not really possessiveness so much as devotion.

If an author didn't know they were killing one of the leads until they posted that chapter, I find I'm just as disinclined to read more of their stuff as if they were sitting on a Major Character Death to avoid scaring away readers. It seemed pissy to comment negatively (someone before me commented that it was a new tag, but they liked it), but FUCK. You know why we're here. You're not that special.

When I am up for Major Character Death I'll know it, and read appropriately.

Dirty pool, author, dirty pool.

Dirty pool, author, dirty pool.

John Reese is a character who is desperate to be owned and given purpose and told what to do so that he can give his undying loyalty.

I suppose it says far more about the writer than it does about the character, when someone cannot grok that a person can be both highly skilled at ass-kicking and also have a certain amount of sexual attractiveness while displaying very little drive to assert any more authority than it takes to get his or her job done.