ranger_i

I'm doing it again. Or rather, I'm not doing it, and that's the problem. The t_m stuff is just not happening for me right now.

I'm going to have to let some of the muses go. One at least, maybe two. Or more.

And I'm avoiding making the decision any way I can. Right now I'm turning a bunch of the old entries from friends only to public. Because I almost can't face this right now.

I love the muses, but I can't do this anymore. I can't pretend I know what I'm doing, holding onto these muses when I can't write a single thing for them, or at least that's how it seems.

I'm starting to miss pellaeon's endless angst. It annoyed me, but the stuff I wrote with him was good, for the most part.

Actually, no. I take that back. The problem I had with Gil is the same problem I'm having with some of the others right now. There's this one angle they've got, and once you exhaust it, what do you do?

Right now I have:

Bella - "I'm evil. Eeeevil!"
Galen - "I am moody."
Irina - "I am invisible. Oh, and misunderstood."
Anna - "I'm just boring."

I'm torn. I want to be able to write these four, but it's just not happening. So I'm torn between keeping them and swapping out one or more of them for someone else. Who else? Well, I could make a list, but there are certainly options.

I think I could maybe use some advice here.

Lately I've felt very disconnected from my muses, unable to write. Irina, Anna, Galen, Bellatrix. I love them so much, but I've considered giving up several of them, because I don't know if I can reach them anymore, and it's not fair to keep them if I can't.

In a way Anna is the hardest. Never a series regular, she appeared in only one episode, and she wasn't herself for that. The novels provide some background, but not a lot. I've invented a few things, but they're not much help. I'm starting to think she's run out of things to say. Or I've run out of stories to tell.

Now, of course, isn't the time to be making these decisions, but I really am starting to wonder.

I've been having kind of a crappy day.

So let's get on with the pup updates, shall we? Hopefully it'll cheer me up.

shadow_anna - Anna Sheridan

Anna is still hanging out at the Flamel Estate with Draco, Galen, Mike, KITT, and Zephyr, though Zephyr has been hanging back. She's going to go try to draw him out a bit later. Right now she's sitting in KITT with Draco, having overexerted herself a bit trying to help cure Draco of the nasty Centauri poison.

Time and space having no meaning in TM (and how much more of a mess would this be if they did?) Anna's also visiting with Londo and Vir on Babylon 5. She brought a catnip mouse for Vir's cat, Duck. And she has plans to visit with Carolyn via telepathic contact on C's part. Has become great pals with Carolyn.

Anna is also chatting a bit with Kitty Pryde, who made an amusing comment about redheads that Anna couldn't quite resist commenting on.

starlight_mage - Galen

Galen is with Anna and the gang, ignoring the Apocalypse Box, and having stormed off left Morden's, where he was snarking at visiting with everybody's favorite Shadow Agent.

darkest_magic - Bellatrix Black Lestrange

Bella is hanging out with her favorite nephew, Draco, listening to him gush about KITT and watching him open the heaps of presents she brought him from her last trip. She's also stalking chatting with Kitty, too. Kitty seems a bit scared/freaked out by this, though Bella doesn't know that, the entries being locked from her and all. It amused me though. She's also keeping her eye out for that nice Evan Kaspraov fellow, whom she rather likes. And also keeping her eye out for anyone else she might be able to manipulate, use, or seduce to her cause somehow.

irina_derevko - Irina Derevko

Irina is having a very, very strange time of it. Her L.A. apartment was somehow broken into, she was drugged, and her Nazgul ring was stolen by none other than mr_morden. Morden left her a strange little clue- a business card for Holy Evil Antiguties, which later became a business card for The League of Extrodinary Evil and other such things. On the other side someone had written "We'll see you again, Ms. Derevko."

Irina is, in her own cool, collected ex-KGB spy sort of way, freaked out. Someone got past her security, which shouldn't have been as easy as it seems to have been, got the jump on her and slapped a tranq tab on her without her even waking up long enough to fight them, and then they stole her ring. She's pretty much figured out that she's better off without the ring, but now she's working on an internet search to try and find Morden and his cronies. Without, of course, knowing that it's them she's looking for.

She keeps getting odd little messages from Morden, obscure hints. One of them suggested she search for 'Shadows'.

And because I am a sick, sick individual, what Irina found was a Babylon 5 fan site. She's very confused, poor thing.

I'm working on a short fic wherein Irina calls Jack Bristow for research help, moral support, and maybe the assurance that he doesn't think she's crazy. I sort of figure that if the Alias gang can deal with the oddness of the Rambaldi stuff, Jack can maybe- maybe deal with this. But it's going to get interesting.

What is Irina doing in L.A.? Is she crazy, if for no other reason than coming back? Will she find Morden and his friends? And what will happen if she does?

Only one way to find out. Stay tuned.

I am vastly, vastly amused by Irina's storyline at present. It's getting weirder every time I turn around, and I love it.

Wow. It's a good thing I've had this week off- and I don't know what you guys are going to do without me when I'm not here all day anymore. Really. :)

darkest_magic - Bellatrix Black Lestrange
Bellatrix has come to theatrical_muse and is beginning to make friends. Or enemies. Or possibly she is just creeping people out. Just now she's chatting with shadowed_kat about death, enemies, and Voldemort, and talking with evankasparov about the Death Eaters. I know very little about the Highlander fandom and nothing about the TV series, so this should be interesting.

Have also plotted a bit with sabine101; I think it could be fun to introduce Bella to theprefect.

And then run away very quickly.

shadow_anna - Anna Sheridan
Anna has had a busy week. She's spoken to _sheridan and they've decided to get a divorce. The conversation with tm_carolyn about men and ice cream goes on.

At the Flamel Estate, the gang has discovered Draco has been poisoned, and are trying to help get him back together. And poor Anna was just starting to calm down, too... When she finds out what happened, there's probably going to be hell to pay.

She finally replied to Londo's letter, and sent one to G'Kar as well. She and Londo are well on their way to being friends again- Anna's even been invited to come for a visit, to meet Vir and hang out for a bit, and Londo asked for her advice on taking care of the kitten, which I think is just too cute for words. Once things calm down for the gang on Babylon 5- well, once they calm down a bit- Anna will be taking that trip.

starlight_mage - Galen
Since time has no meaning to t_m, at the same time he's working with the gang to save Draco, he's bonding with him in another thread. He's very quickly come to love the kid, and is very, very angry at whomever poisoned him.

Galen is also chatting with _mariel about the technomages and his childhood. He's very suspicious of her, of course, but then who isn't? (Oh yeah. Vir.)

irina_derevko - Irina Derevko
Poor Irina. No roleplaying for her since that thing with i_am_shiny. Maybe she should try to put an intelligence network together for t_m, for lack of anything better to do.

Actually that's not a bad idea... hmm. If anyone's pups want to play the espionage game, drop me a comment, would you? Or go see Irina.

You know, I thought the Babylon 5 fandom was fairly predictable. In a good way, but... Anyway, I was wrong. Boy was I ever wrong.

shadow_anna - Anna Sheridan
Anna was invited to emperor_cotto_i's Ascension Day party by londo_mollari (who else?) Anna's friends the techno-mages are a bit concerned about her relationship with Londo (still being rather pissed at him for "Geometry of Shadows" and its background in the techno-mage trilogy, book 2, in which 25 mages are killed in the explosion of a ship one of the mages tricked Londo into setting up for them; the Shadows sabotaged said ship, of course...) Anyway. The mages don't trust Londo, so Londo suggested Anna bring one of them along.

Enter starlight_mage.

Now, this may have been a mistake, because Galen, though I love him, is skirting the edge of antisocial at times, and he was a bit freaked out at Vir's party. (But we'll get to that.)

The party was huge, and Anna never did meet Vir himself. She hung out with Galen, slytherinsilver, (Draco Malfoy) and a few other people, and chatted a bit with theprefect (Gul Dukat, who is brilliantly creepy and Dukat-ish). Londo started a game of Truth or Dare, which Anna skipped in favor of talking more with Draco. Who she has decided she and Galen have to adopt and thus rescue from the horrors of living with Old Man Klaus (mr_morden) when/if he marries _goneril_.

citizengkar professed his love to Londo, then went *poof*. So Londo asked Anna to marry him.

Anna was floored. So was I, for that matter. Londo and Anna have been flirting back and forth for a while now, and Anna thought it was fairly harmless, that it was just Londo. Lately she's been thinking she should have said something to him, explained a few things... but then this happened. She said no, because a.) her love life is already way too complicated, and b.) she just isn't interested in Londo in that way.

Most unfortunately for Anna (and Londo), G'Kar came back in time to catch this little exchange. Cue raging jealousy driven Narn, who got into an argument with Londo, in the process comparing Anna to Morden at the top of his lungs. (This, in turn, was overheard by galaxygab, the party-crashing reporter, with disastrous results).

While Londo chased after G'Kar to try and sort things out, Anna went back to Galen and Draco, who, seeing how upset she was, got her the hell out of there. Anna is now hanging out at the Flamel Estate with Draco and his nearest and dearest, trying to calm down. She'll go back to speaking to Londo, as I've discussed with the Londo mun, after he gets back from rescuing G'Kar (who, being G'Kar, is off to do something stupid and self-sacrificing.)

It wasn't until Anna was talking with tm_carolyn (Carolyn Sanderson) that I realized how much of a soap opera Anna's life has become.

Like so. She's still married to _sheridan, who is engaged to marry _delenn, was proposed to by londo_mollari, who in addition to being married to timov_of_algul apparently has the hots for citizengkar as well. She's also seeing starlight_mage, who still has moments of being hung up on Isabelle, the technomage who was his first love, died tragically... ect.

Anna and Carolyn have reasoned out (quite logically, too, I think) that the only solution to this is ice cream and a string of curses hurled at the male gender.

starlight_mage - Galen
Galen bonded with Draco at Vir's party over magic and dysfunctional families. Galen was uncharacteristically open with Draco, sensing a kindred spirit. He, like Anna, would love to adopt Draco, and if he ever catches up with Lucius Malfoy... Yeah.

He and Londo have been getting into it a bit on the subject of Anna, who does not know that it was basically Londo's fault she killed a bunch of Narns during the Shadow War. Of course Galen said the wrong things to Londo, thus ensuring that he was not going anywhere at all. Alas, poor Galen. It was funny, though.

Londo, perhaps out of a fun sense of spite, kept trying to drag Galen into his game of Truth or Dare at Vir's party. Galen lost it at one point and cast an illusion turning Londo's hair green. (Bright green, I might add.) Londo asked Draco to fix it, but the best Draco could do was turn it pink. But pink is close to purple, which Londo though was okay.

Galen set some fireballs and holo-demons to chasing galaxygab, only to have them destroyed by the Pah-Wraiths, courtesy of everybody's favorite crafty Cardassian, theprefect.

Then came Londo's proposal to Anna and the argument. Galen and Draco quickly put their heads together and decided to get Anna out of there.

At the Flamel Estate, Galen discovered he has his very own fanboy in the person of shaman_x. He's not sure what to make of this.

Galen also met ki2k, who is having some...er, technical difficulties, and is going to do his best to help out if he can. He'd also like to give Zephyr a hand if he can. Nice guy, that Galen.

In between all of this, he's having an argument/discussion with Morden about nothing. Morden is being typical, Galen is banging his head against the wall... the usual.

irina_derevko - Irina Derevko (duh?)
Irina... has not done a damn thing. Which may be just as well for my peace of mind, as the B5 stuff is going slightly nuts.

I have no 4th muse at the moment- Yay! Have asked draco_mun to look into something for me in her capacity as mod, though. Bellatrix. *covet, covet, covet* We wants her, precious...

Yes. I'm aware that she is evil and creepy and scary... she's also the only female villain in HP. And I am in love with the creepy evil that is Bella. So there.

Am going to kill pellaeon. Slowly and painfully. I hate how he refuses to cooperate. I don't want to give him up, but if I can't write him, what's the point, you know?

*sigh*

I'm bored, and I don't feel like doing anything really useful, so...

I've been meaning to do this for a while. Here's a rundown on all the people mentioned in my pups' journals, for your OOC info.

Mild to serious spoilers for everybody, for what that's worth.

( Anna )

( Irina )

( Galen )

And, what the hell, why not?

( Pellaeon )

Well, that was cheerful.

Since everyone else is doing this, and it seems like a good way to keep track of everything...

And like draco_mun, I think I'll start with the character giving me the most trouble.

pellaeon Grand Admiral Gilad Pellaeon, Star Wars
I picked Gil as my 4th muse after a lot of thought, and it took a while for the approval to come through. I was really excited by the time I finally got to write him officially... and then things just kind of tapered off. His intro was okay, and his first couple posts, but after that I discovered the Admiral had a problem.

Okay, a lot of problems. One, he's angsting really badly about the deaths of his lover and their son, and he will not stop. I have a perfectly nice, lovely happy little AU plotline waiting for him, and he refuses to play along. He wants to be miserable. And like Jaina Solo, the other SW pup I already retired, he refuses to write the "war is really shitty" stories I was hoping he'd tell. (I feel like giving the finger to Pres. Bush and the War on Terror and all that crap.)

Anyway, he is this close to getting his ass retired.

shadow_anna Anna Sheridan, Babylon 5
Anna was my first pup, the one that got me into theatrical_muse in the first place. draco_mun emailed me when t_m was getting started, fangirled my Anna a bit, and suggested I apply to write her in t_m. So I did. I haven't had any regrets yet.

Anna was a bit shy at first, but now she's making all kinds of friends, in and out of her fandom. Londo, Carolyn, Draco, Garibaldi. Oh, and Goneril, sort of. Goneril thinks she's someone from 90210.

Anna went to Draco's party with Londo, and had a hell of a good time. Drunk bugsndaffy was one of the highlights. Anna's a bit creeped out by them, of course, but it was still funny. She and Londo ended up playing poker with mr_morden and a few others. Morden and his pal Craig lost a few artifacts from their Evil Stuff collection, and Anna lost an Apocalypse Box (apocalypsebox, natch)- to Captain Jack Sparrow. Fun times.

She wants to adopt Draco Malfoy- still. And she's been invited to Vir's Ascension Day party by Londo. She's going, with a technomage chaperone type person, probably starlight_mage.

One of these years, since the fanfic version is taking so damned long to write, I'm going to have to throw together sort of a 'backgrounder' on Anna and the technomages. I'll probably post it here, and it should go a long way toward explaining the way I see Anna and how I play/write her in t_m, particularly as relates to the mages.

starlight_mage Galen, Babylon 5/Crusade
Galen is my newest pup, and already a favorite, right up there with Anna and Irina. (Let's not talk about Gil; let's just continue to pretend he doesn't exist.) Thus far Galen has been flashed by Londo, who then asked him to impersonate Gandalf. Galen, appropiratly, quoted Elric quoting that line from LOTR. Say it with me: "Do not try the patience of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger."

Which, of course, has some interesting connotations for Galen, which tie into the Passing of the Technomages trilogy- which everybody ought to read, because it rocks.

He's also pestering Morden a bit, and either taunting or being taunted by the Apocalypse Box- maybe both at the same time.

I watched "The Geometry of Shadows" again today, and with that fresh in my mind, I'm just waiting for someone to really piss off Galen.

irina_derevko Irina Derevko, Alias
I love my Irina. I know in my heart she is not as good as my friend dagnylilytable's Irina, but she is a hell of a lot of fun to write. She's been up to no good lately, taunting sark_castic (Sark) and pestering sydney_b about giving up on Vaughn perminantly.

She's also, um, been seduced by i_am_shiny (The One Ring) and is now the Queen of Dispair, leader of the new, improved, Neo-less Ringwraiths. Do not mess with Ringwraith!Spymommy. Seriously.

It'll be interesting to see where that goes, especally if I give into my temptation to drop pellaeon in favor of Jack Bristow. I just see Jack having a huge problem with Irina playing evil- well, either that or he'll think she's crazy.

But seriously. There are things Irina won't do, even for the Ring and whatever it may be able to do for her. She is going to protect her interests- and her family, whether they want her or not- at all costs.

Yeah, she shot Sydney, and she's not always sweetness and light to Jack, but she has her reasons.

Non-TM pups

apocalypsebox The Apocalypse Box, Babylon 5/Crusade
Shared with draco_mun. The Box started talking to Captain Jack at Draco's party, and has gone right on talking. To Jack, to Kosh and Galen and a few others... I haven't done much with it lately, since with two people running the Box I'd rather let Star write the Box's half of the Box/Galen conversation.