I'm a duck, a chicken, a duck, a chicken...

This weekend has been truly excellent.
Saturday night, my White Wolf character kicked ass. Our tribe, the Valiant Bastards, has been an outcast tribe--we've been relegated to the outskirts of Mount Pleasant for most of the game. Our Alpha, Mel, doesn't particularly like this treatment, feeling that he's owed something more for his long service to the city kicking the asses of many supernatural NPC monsters. Since he's never been in his own pack, and just decided to create his own out of most of the newbie players this year, the Alpha of Alphas is extremely reluctant to accede him an inch of city ground. (Werewolves are apparently very territory-centered--not the same thing as being territorial, although they are that too.) In the meantime, the city is dying because the Alpha of Alphas kicked out the Rites Master, who essentially cursed the city.
So us Valiant Bastards have decided that we're going to find out what's going on with the Rites Master and be on his side. In the meantime, the Alpha of Alphas gave us a mission--to kill Rat Monsters. They're infesting a quarry, and they can only be found in the spirit world. Luckily, we not only have an Indian shaman in our pack, but two Cahaliths, who have connections to the spirit world. And my little techno-geek raver is one of them.
Cahaliths can have one prophetic dream per month; normally, the dream just happens if you ask the Storyteller nicely. We decided to force the prophetic dreams by having the shaman (Brady) do a ritual, which he actually used a real Navajo chant for (his roomie is a Navajo who's practically never been off the reservation before). It worked great. We managed to summon a Level 5 spirit to help us, which is just one level below an actual god. I drew the actual vision, and worked out a cunning plan to ambush the Rat Monsters in their den. We then proceeded to completely kick the asses of the Rat Monsters--even us non-combative Cahaliths got in on the action by chucking rocks. It turned out that the quarry they were infesting was the spirit's home, so we gained its favor by kicking them out, and it even gave Brady its spirit gift.
The Alpha of Alphas grudgingly gave us a small patch of territory in a very rich part of town--not what we wanted. Mel wanted the Strip because he owns a titty bar there, which is pretty much the home base of the Valiant Bastards. (The titty bar is actually a small classroom in Powers Hall; it's tiny, covered in tiles, and smells vaguely like a bathroom. I'm pretty sure it was at one point.) The Alpha of Alphas also gave Mel the right to challenge him for leadership, which Mel's not going to do (I think) because he's pretty apathetic about leadership. Our pack is already the most democratic pack in the game, and at the same time, the highest in solidarity--no interpersonal squabbles. We're also all pot-smoking slackers and flaky weirdos, and, with our spirit help and butt-kicking abilities (and some major dirt we got on some of the other tribes), poised to be quite powerful fairly soon. We are the best damn tribe ever. (Which is very tribalistic thinking, which is encouraged in White Wolf. On the other hand, backstabbing and secrecy is encouraged in Vampire, and I can't handle that. Guess I know which monster I'm meant to be...until MAGE starts in October. I'm looking forward to that so much because it is just such a damn fucking cool game.)
Also had a very spirited conversation with Robyn and her friend whose name I can't remember after the game involving sex, Harry Potter, the blending of the two, polyamory and why it is totally cool, religion and why different ones are cool, and how hot slash stories are. (Brady sat there quietly and fed me bacon. He did not wish to participate in the girlish boysex squee.) That was fun.

Sunday, I went with diraskyria to see Corpse Bride. (ETA: Oh, fuck spoilers, there really aren't any in this post.)
DANNYYYYYeeeeeee. :ahem: Ok, now that that's out of my system: I liked it and thought it was just terribly cute. Perhaps too cute; the talking animal companions were very, very Disney, which I don't particularly like. It's only the second movie I've ever thought was genuinely romantic, and the other one was "Bride of Re-Animator," which has a similar plot: Undead girl loves living boy, living boy loves living girl, undead girl gives up and expires. Except that Victor doesn't really have a Herbert equivalent. (Bonejangles? Anyone want to write Victor/Bonejangles? Lots of really terrible "boner" puns?)
Depp/Elfman slash? Mmm...well, never mind. Not so interesting of a couple as Tim and Danny. Less of a dynamic. Much less. The eye candy factor? Let me put it this way: It's an established and unremarkable fact that Johnny Depp is hot. Saying "OMG, Johnny Depp is so hot" is somewhere on par with saying "OMG, the Mona Lisa is such a great painting" or "Beethoven's Fifth is such an awesome piece of music." Everyone in the world has accepted the fact that Johnny Depp is hot. Tribesmen in the remote Amazon who have never even heard of movies are aware of the fact that Johnny Depp is hot. It is not an accomplishment to note this. On the other hand, it is a little unusual for someone to blithely state that yes, Danny Elfman is hot...and therefore, I blithely state this now: Danny Elfman is hot. Therefore, I'm planning on writing some Tim/Danny, because I kept getting little Tim/Danny moments during the first part of the movie.
Clearly, I have some odd attractions. Here's another one: Undead chicks are sexy. (NOT NECROPHILE) Let me rephrase that: Zombies in love with the living are terribly romantic. I firmly believe that Corpse Emily and The Bride from "Re-Animator" would make an adorable couple, somehow. (Perhaps they could have a threesome with Sally. Mmm.) I'm actually working up a Re-A/Corpse Bride idea, because I keep deliberately forgetting that movies don't all take place in the same universe. (All she wants is to be alive so that he'll love her...Herbert West can't bring her back to life, but he can do a pretty good job of making it seem like she is.)
Danny, as Bonejangles, was excellent (what little there was of him!). He has a kind of odd buzzy voice that is quite clearly Danny's, but crossed with a chainsaw. I like it. I particularly liked the way the living world was all washed-out blue and grey, whereas the undead world was vibrant green and orange--textually, this reflected the way the straight-laced-ness of the Victorian living world (obsession with status, money, marrying for either one of those) versus the more relaxed and social atmosphere of the dead world (parties, love, everyone's equal when you're dead). Metatextually, it's another extension of Tim's affinity for the afterlife and colorful portrayals of it. (And Danny's Dia De Los Muertos, "Dead Man's Party" attitude, particularly in Bonejangles' song.)
Afterwards, Fic Collective and stories about dead bodies. Mine was recieved as "weird but really good" and "disgusting...but sexy!" and expansion was suggested. The other story really, really should have been about necrophilia. Started out as a story about a mortician, and then...petered out into a detailed description of a guy eating a hamburger. (Was the hamburger made of people? You would think so, but no.)

Also, ghostgecko gave me the best idea EVER for a vampire story, and I hope he doesn't mind me using it, and he is brilliant and awesome and I do love quite him a lot, and he's awesome--it bears repeating. And drworm kindly allowed me to bounce insane ideas about time travel and gender roles off her and is quite wonderful in general and I love drworm quite a lot. I love them both quite a lot.
And eshugh sent me a copy of the "Bride of Re-Animator" soundtrack and of Jeff Combs reading the original story. THANK YOU!!!!! I may actually get some Re-A fics done now with this inspiration, or at least started, which is half the battle.

Note for cmu students involved in the the Ellen Taylor controversy over her utterly crappy columns: I offer an alternative. Nick Moose, columnist for the Kent State college newspaper. Sent to me by drworm, who goes there. I propose some kind of columnist exchange program, or at least a meeting of the minds. Ellen Taylor can learn how to write something amusing for a change, and Nick Moose can get laid so that he can stop masturbating for a while. ('Cause there's no such thing as just being Platonic columnists!)

One last comment: "American Dad" was particularly amusing to me tonight. Catch it on Thursday at 11 PM if you haven't yet, because I am fairly sure that at least 95% of the people on my friendslist can, like, TOTALLY relate.