It's like, on the one hand, whooping cough epidemic, and on the other, box of puppies

[st_aurafina]

I am editing all the fic. Editing sucks, because deep down I have this terrible fear I am actually making the fic worse. I don't want to break my fic!

And because I'm editing Sanctuary fic, I have awesome wiki tabs open: Komodo dragon, predictive analytics, Luna moth, St John's Wood, goat-antelope. (Goat-antelope! It's like something from AtLA. Platypus-bear!)


Today was a pretty sucky day at work - the whooping cough epidemic is swelling, and I am glumly watching the clarithromycin supplies dwindle. I had to sign millions of pages of legal documents (because someone in government decided that it would be great to let pharmacists function as Justices of the Peace. If I'm going to be a Justice of the Peace, I want a big sword or a funky curly wig.) Then every doctor wanted every patient's dosette pack changed, and I didn't get to have lunch until three. But then, just as I was about to give up and lie on the floor in despair, there was a box of puppies! Like, a box of puppies! I can't explain the delight of a box of puppies coming to visit. They are Jack Russell puppies, a month old, and have those tiny puppy heads and little round noses and tiny milk teeth, and a little one called Daisy fell asleep in my hands.

Puppies! Better than caffeine! Better than chocolate! Possibly better than cocaine, but I have no evidence to compare.

I love working in the country. Once I asked a customer wearing a baby sling if they needed help, and a little joey poked his head out of the sling.


Meme? From lots of people:
1. Pick a pairing or a character
2. Ask me my particular head!canon regarding something about them
3. Post to your journal to share your own head!canon!

Comments

[lilacsigil]

OMG those puppies. But we still aren't getting one.

[st_aurafina]

But their little tummies! All pink skin and fuzz!

BUT THEIR LITTLE NOSES!

[entwashian]

Hold the line! Don't give in! ;D

[havocthecat]

Whooping cough epidemics: Very annoying! I'm getting my vaccination updated on Thursday since it's been prevalent in the area for a few years now.

I'm glad that you got to see puppies! They sound adorable and I'm terribly jealous. :)

[st_aurafina]

Good for you getting your vaccine updated. (I'm going to talk to my doctor about it when I go for my fluvax - I actually had whooping cough as a kid, and I'm not sure where that leaves me, immunity wise.)

THE PUPPIES WERE AMAZING! And now, with a good break, I can think about how much I enjoyed giving the puppy back and not having to clean up their poop.

[mara]

Whooping cough epidemics make me sad :( Wah.

[st_aurafina]

They are so unnecessary, seriously.

[lilmoka]

Editing sucks a lot, as do cough epidemics ;_; On the other hand, PUPPIES! :D

[st_aurafina]

PUPPIES! They were so warm and fuzzy!

[amaresu]

I had no idea that Whooping Cough was still a thing people got. That sounds awful. But, puppies!

I give you Emma Frost or Armor. Or both. Together?

[st_aurafina]

It is, if you let herd immunity drop. Thank the anti-vaxxers; now we have a vaccine-resistant strain.

I just laughed, because my tech just brought me a big cardboard box, and I was all "Puppies?" but it was clarithromycin for the whooping cough. Nearly as good.

Comicsverse Emma? I'm sadly behind on comics canon, but one thing I love about her being with the X-Men, and at the school is that it allows me to indulge my head canon that she really, really loves being a teacher. I base this on the fact that she plays mind games and she's mean as fuck to the kids that can take it, but she never bullies anyone who can't take it, and the kids really do learn to be independent and able to protect themselves. In my head, the thing she likes best of all is the educational stuff like developing curriculum, but she'd never admit that to anyone.

[amaresu]

Now that I'm thinking about it I did have to get a whooping cough booster shot in sixth grade so they'd let me go on to seventh. Which suggests I probably had one when I was wee and tiny to begin with. I guess it's just not something I think about?

Few things are as good as a box of puppies. Clarithromycin sounds like one of those things.

Have you seen this: http://fycomicbookfriendships.tumblr.com/post/23067523564/emma-how-are-your-test-scores-kitty-exemplary

It's just this one little panel and it's brilliant and I love it. I love that they snark at each other about school and now I want to see the quiz bowl.

[st_aurafina]

I had not seen that! It is delightful!

[amaresu]

Wolverine and the X-Men is one of my favorites for a reason.

[vass]

Possibly better than cocaine, but I have no evidence to compare.

You're destroying all my illusions about the life of a country pharmacist.

[st_aurafina]

When I moved in here, there was this giant safe in the old premises, big enough for several bodies actually, and in this giant safe was a bunch of out-of-date/antique medication, including a jar of cocaine (for the legitimate purpose of making eyedrops or so I presume.)

Some of the safer stuff I put on display in the museum case, but the cocaine I destroyed.

[lonelywalker]

Wow, a legitimate whooping cough epidemic? How Dickensian!

I do not advise snorting puppies, however adorable they are.

Meme! Um! The X-Men First Class boys' (Alex, Hank, Sean) families/home background.

[st_aurafina]

No, it's one of those modern "we don't need no vaccinations" type epidemics. I can't even with these stupid anti-vaxxers.

I have one for Hank - my head canon for Hank is that he's from some horribly rigid, desperately trying to be middle class, don't let the neighbours know, emotionally abusive kind of home. Otherwise, I don't think he'd be nearly as repressed as he obviously is. I'm pretty sure, when he goes home to visit, his room is like a little boy's room, with aeroplane wallpaper and Donald Duck pajamas and a skinny single bed with the sheets pulled too tight for comfort.

[lonelywalker]

Oh noes. I thought those were limited to the US.

:( *hugs wee!Hank in his Donald Duck pyjamas*

[clare_dragonfly]

Ahaha, I totally thought the title of your post was metaphorical! XD But yay puppies!

[st_aurafina]

No metaphors here, I'm afraid. But the puppies were so very yay!

[resolute]

I find the fact that there are whooping cough epidemics in countries that can absolutely prevent this to be *infuriating*.

Good luck!

[st_aurafina]

It is infuriating! Especially a disease that relies on herd immunity for newborns, who can't be vaccinated until eight weeks.

[aphrodite_mine]

Tell me something about one of your original characters that didn't make it into the story.

Alternatively: Audrey Horne.

[st_aurafina]

You get a ficlet, because I still have reams and reams of backstory for Audrey. Set before The Magician Longs to See, while Audrey is at college. PG-ish?

---

College is oddly easy – one of those lucky turns, Audrey thinks, since she has never really applied herself academically before – as it seems that she is actually a good student. She attends lectures, socialises moderately, and the years fly past. She is not the most beautiful student on campus, but there are some who find her hypnotic. She has boyfriends from time to time, and incredibly intense relationships with women.

"I have a sister, back home." Audrey is curled in the crook of Elizabeth's shoulder. Elizabeth is a psych grad student, dark skinned and fiercely feminist. Audrey admires her passion – she doesn't feel that, often, herself – and loves the way the corners of her eyes crease when she smiles.

Elizabeth is surprised; Audrey rarely talks about her family, and it is strange to see that smooth, calm facade slide away. She presses her lips to the top of Audrey's head, breathes water-lily shampoo and sweat. "I knew you had a brother."

Audrey turns in Elizabeth's arms, so that her lips are close to the curve of a breast. "I think, sometimes, that half the town might be half Horne. My father was a..." – what was the term that suited him best? –"a Lothario. It turns out that two of the girls in my class were my sisters."

"Two?" Elizabeth allows herself a smile. "It was just one a few minutes ago."

"She's dead." Audrey traces the bell of Elizabeth's breast with her lips. "One of the girls was murdered when I was seventeen."

Elizabeth can't help but snort, it's just one more absurd thing about Audrey. "What is this place that you come from? I can't believe half the things you tell me about – growing up in a hotel, going to school in a limousine." She's from Ohio, is Elizabeth, a place where the streets are straight lines, and the houses are three bedroom/one and a half bathroom, with a pool and a garage and a big yellow bus to take you to school.

Audrey traces her finger around one nipple thoughtfully, round and round until Elizabeth doesn't care what the answer to her mostly rhetorical question is. "It's the place that made me. I don't know any other thing to call it."

Later, Audrey calls the Great Northern, just to hear the reception desk rattle off the standard welcome message. Audrey doesn't say anything, just lays the phone down on the cradle again. It's not that she gets homesick, just that it's good to remind yourself that home hasn't gone anywhere. Twin Peaks will always be there.

[aphrodite_mine]

I adore this.

[st_aurafina]

Audrey! I love her so much!

[heartequals]

This is wonderful.

[st_aurafina]

AUDREY is wonderful!

[lurkingcat]

A box of puppies? A whole box of puppies? That's awesome.

You should totally get a sword and wig if you're going to be a JP.

[st_aurafina]

A WHOLE BOX of puppies. Which is actually three puppies on a flannel blanket.

I want a magistrate's wig! And a bloody sword.

[neotoma]

You have a whooping cough epidemic? :(

Otoh, a box of puppies cure many things.

[st_aurafina]

We do, sadly. It's been going on for four years, but it's really bad here right now. Bah, I blame the anti-vaxxers.

Yes, a box of puppies is the best cure.

[entwashian]

a little joey poked his head out of the sling

Ahahahahahahaha!

Meme: Veronica Mars?

[st_aurafina]

It was the best thing ever!

I have to say my head canon for Veronica Mars is that storyline they had planned for the S4/movie we never got, where Veronica is joining the FBI. I think that the idea of joining the Bureau would be shiny enough to make her set aside her cynicism for approximately two days, then the ambitious, backstabbing people would kick her back into wise-cracking defence mode. But eventually she'd find people she can trust - the agents who believe in what the Bureau should stand for, and who will back her up when she needs it, and she will be able to get on with solving crime and being basically an awesome person again.

(I think I just wrote an outline for S4!)

[heartequals]

BOX OF PUPPIES <3____<3

Also, joey in a sling...omg

[heartequals]

I missed a crucial part of this post oh wow. Such is the power of baby animals.

I want to ask you about Albert/Cooper but I already know about molluscs, sooo. Denise?

[st_aurafina]

Lol, I never got around to writing the molluscs, did I? It goes like this:

Set some chilly afternoon when Albert has just arrived home from a long day of making students cry:

Albert: (post-welcome home kissing on the step) So, what's for dinner?
Dale: I made clam chowder.*hold out his hands placatingly* Don't worry, Albert, I didn't use clams.
Albert: You know how I feel about molluscs. They're filter feeders. You may as well eat your soup out of a toilet bowl.
Dale: I stamped out some cod with a cookie cutter. It's very hygienic. Perhaps I should call it cod chowder?
Albert: Call it whatever you like, just don't serve it in one of those bread bowls.
Dale: It's a tradition round these parts, Albert. They've been doing that for a couple of centuries.
Albert: I don't care. You shouldn't serve food wrapped in food. It's a gastronomic tautology.
Dale: But what about sandwiches?
*door closes*


---
But did you think I didn't have a ficlet lying around for Dale and Albert? Seriously, I still have thousands of words of unconnected scenes. This is set just before Dale and Albert move to Boston and get married, a sort of different ending to that fic:


Albert surprises himself by breezing through the details of his new employment with relative ease, though he negotiates hard on salary and benefits. He isn't there to be taken advantage of. It isn't until he is holding a pile of flat-packed boxes that he realises the real obstacle is the physical move. Even though Dale is in the longest stretch of stability since his return from Twin Peaks, it feels to Albert like a fragile thing, a bone-china state that will fracture in Albert's hands.

Dale launches himself into the packing process with great enthusiasm, however. Albert comes home each evening to find the apartment a little more sparse and the stacks of boxes sitting higher and higher. Dale packs carefully but with impenetrable logic: kitchenware with books, linen with canned goods. Every night, Albert discovers his repertoire of compromise has expanded again. Dale mitigates his decisions by writing incredibly complicated lists and taping them to each box, complete with projections and opinions on the things he has packed.

At night, Albert curls around Dale's body, holding him, warm and safe under the blankets. He wishes that were enough to keep Dale whole.

On the last day, they wait for the moving van, sitting on the leather sofa together. The light slants in through the windows; the curtains are folded and packed in a carton with Albert's old chemistry set and a silver tea service he had forgotten he owned. Dale reads from the welcome brochure for their apartment block.

"Because of the architectural details (and cranky neighbours), most old apartments do not allow large pets. Cats are usually OK, but large dogs and more exotic animals generally are not." He butts his head against Albert's shoulder. "Do you think I'm going to be too exotic for them?"

Albert rolls his eyes. "Does this mean I can keep you on a leash?"

---

In answer to your question about Denise, my head canon for Denise is that she's the best networker out there - her little black book is full of name for the movers and shakers of all the agencies, and they all quake a little when she calls because she never, ever forgets who owes her a favour. She's spent a lot of time accumulating favours, and she has no shame in calling them in to protect her people.

---

Shit, I never really stopped writing these people, did I? I have a whole world in there.

*sighs happily*

[heartequals]

Shit, I never really stopped writing these people, did I? I have a whole world in there.

WHY DO YOU TORTURE ME LIKE THIS
WHYYYYY
/crying because this/they/you are perfect.

I don't actually have words for how charmed I am by that scene but this:
He butts his head against Albert's shoulder. "Do you think I'm going to be too exotic for them?"

Albert rolls his eyes. "Does this mean I can keep you on a leash?"

I love them and their ridiculous relationship and how comfortable they are with each other and I am excited for how happy they are going to be Boston with snow and pie and fake clam chowder.

they all quake a little when she calls
DENISE I LOVE YOU

[st_aurafina]

I know, right? I had been having such a shit day that when I held the puppy, I actually cried with joy. It was pure joy tears.