Missing a bus = time to write fanfic

[matrixrefugee]

I managed to get a rather nice if simple blouse to wear to the wedding (if we don't get snowed in...), but due to some difficulties catching a bus, I ended up with an hour to kill at the Starbucks inside the Target in Lowell. This became anything but a total loss, as I finished writing another fic for the 12 Days of Fanfic challenge (which I may post tomorrow). The only catch was, I had to deal with the squeeing teenaged girls at the next table:

Random teen #1: "Oh, we went to see New Moon again last night."

Me: :: Internal: Moans, not in a good way::

Random teen #2: "Oh, I've seen it three times!"

Me: :: Internal: There's better movies you could rewatch that many times....::

Random teen #3: "The book is better. Trust me."

Me: :: Internal: Hm. There's some amount of hope...::

This was even more cringe-inducing since I was writing a Dresden Files fic, featuring Harry's brother Thomas the energy vampire; as soon as one of the girls went on about wanting to meet a real vampire someday, I had to restrain myself from by turns cringing and chuckling to myself at the thought of said girls falling prey to the White Court. I also reminded myself that "Daybreakers" comes out next week and it looks like the perfect antidote to the fangless sparkle-pires. That shot in the trailer of the humans in what looks like some kind of Matrix-esque body pods always makes me think, "One way to deal with the Twhinelite fanggurls: feed 'em to vampires with *fangs*." I imagine there's going to be a lot of "Daybreakers" metafiction involving said fanggurls, as well as Photoshoops of said shot in the "Daybreakers" trailer with Kristin Stewart's face superimposed on one of the random humans in the body pods, if there isn't already. I admit I'm even fighting off a plot bunny involving a dhampire of sorts who's caught in between the humans and the vampires in the Daybreakers-verse, but that's going to have to wait till I actually *see the movie.

Also got caught in a surprise rain shower while leaving the library and running to catch a bus... and then it turned into a very pretty snow shower.

Comments

[koemiko.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of when I went to my cousin's high school performance, and in the program one of the girls's bios was, "She would like to thank Mom, Dad, her friend Jessie, and Edward Cullen."

I made the face in my icon.

[matrixrefugee.livejournal.com]

:: Rolls eyes:: Yyyeeeeaaah, via twilight_sucks I've heard about girls doing similar things. It always makes me say, "That's like me thanking my manipulative ex."

I've heard girls discussing the dumb books say in the same breath that they'd like to meet a real vampire; this causes me to have to restrain myself from waving to the speaker and saying "Hi, sometimes friendly neighborhood energy vampire here, pleased to meet you; no, I don't drink blood, and I certainly don't sparkle." But I don't doubt the reaction would be "You can't be a vampire: you don't sparkle."

[koemiko.livejournal.com]

I think the issue is all in the language.

- Vampire USED to mean "undead abomination." They weren't sexy, they would come to prey upon the living, and were generally ugly - an undead person, whose fingernails and hair continued to grow.
- It BECAME sexy with Carmilla, Ruthven, and Dracula, but really started picking up speed around the 70's and onward.
- From then, vampires were MOSTLY sexy, starting up with Dark Shadows/Anne Rice, and continuing on from there. (Knight Rider, John Carpenter, etc.)

Further confusing things is that energy vampires are not technically vampires in the traditional sense of the word; the term used for "a person who has a condition in which they need blood/energy," yet energy vampires are not undead and do not have supernatural powers such as flight. "Vampire" is just the closest term we can find, (which causes a great deal of line-blurring, particularly with lifestylers and vampires who are both vampiric and lifestylers.)

So in sum, what we have are young girls fantasizing over creatures that by old definition used to be considered abominations, without acknowledging that they used to be abominations, or that people can actually enjoy them as senseless monsters - even to the point where the modern interpretation is insulting...

And then we have energy vampires, saying they feel these young people know nothing about REAL vampires, without realizing that the term "vampire" is misleading due to the popular definition.