Name: Scatterwaul. What, that isn't a name?

Location: Some first world country since I went to grad school

Gender: As you like it. I don't particularly care whichever one I get.

Beta Read: I think it's more accurate to say that I work like a story editor than a spelling editor. I'm more interested in working on the plot and characters.

What I'm doing right now: I waffle between my original fictions and fanfictions when I'm not working on various research.

To the people who guest-reviews instead of logging in with one-liner flames: You know, as much as I don't give a damn about people calling me names, don't you think I can't improve any story I've written without being specific? Also, just making sure that "Divide and Conquer" _was_ crack and sort of quasi-sequel to Silver Pard's "Adaptation". Please check the context of the story before complaining about something that has actually been clarified, and that's the PSA for today.

UPDATE As of 31st March 2014:

As of 2012, my mother died, and now my father's dead, both of some rare complications, and my father from some rare insane-arse disease as well as complication that is probably worthy of being made into a House case. No, seriously. I know the specialists have been dying to ask to autopsy him and was just too polite to ask outright. And then there comes the effin' estate issues and family drama. There is also realisation that with my parents mortality rate, I might as well just consider myself having 25-ish more years to live. Oh Joy.

The previous updates as to how I probably couldn't go ahead and go on with my stories unless I get someone to bounce ideas with? Yeah, that still applies.

UPDATE As of 7th November 2012:

I'm not sure if I have the strength to significantly add on either 'Divide and Conquer' and 'To Wrought a Hundred Change' alone. If you want to help me bounce ideas with, go ahead and send me a PM or two and we could start from there. Otherwise, I'm in a dormant phase right now.

UPDATE - END

It should be obvious from the number of stories in my favourite lists that I'm a hundred times the reader than I am the writer, and that's only scratching the surface. Some of the stories I've read and enjoyed but have some qualms in terms of characterization / world-building / plot exposition and the like never ended up on that list.

In case I write crackfics, I do it at random. I don't know where it will go next, and I don't know if I would ever reach the end. Thus if you were curious whether some of my stories would ever be finished, I absolve myself from further responsibility of the crackfics (unless anyone is willing to help with the research for the fic, and I doubt that). I can't seem to sustain my interest for too long in stories with too much angst (angst! glorious angst!), so I tend to read less of them and never write anything like it either. Perhaps that's also another reason why I avoid stories with certain 'ships; I regard them as one of the angst indicators of a story.

Things I've Read/Watch often enough that I can swim and not sink in the fandom:

Well, let's see. I should list them alphabetically, I guess: Bleach, Card Captor Sakura, Cat Returns, Death Note, Discworld, Elementary (I don't care what anyone else says, but I consider it a good reinvention), Fullmetal Alchemist, Good Omens, Harry Potter, Hellsing, His Dark Materials, House, Howl's Moving Castle, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Kareshi Kanojo no Jijyou, Kaze no Hikaru, Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, Labyrinth, Lord Peter Wimsey, Magic Knight Rayearth, Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro, Mirrormask, Naruto, Nodame Cantabile, Phantom of the Opera, Pluto, Sherlock Holmes (canon, a bit of the BBC), Spirited Away, Team Medical Dragon, Tokyo Crazy Paradise, W Juliet, XXXHolic.

Probably more but they're not crossing my mind right now.

What creeps me out:

(1a) Couples behaving like goo around each other in ways that aren't canon to their character, especially if (1b) they're yaoi in which both the yaoi characters' interaction and the ship isn't canon *shudder*. That's a double failure of suspension of disbelief. If the standard seems heavy, let me say that I have no problem if the characters are already gay in canon. It's putting characters with no canon bearing towards gayness in yaoi stories that's problematic without writing out their interaction towards it properly. Example: Dorian Gray being gay from the outset? No problem. Arthur Conan Doyle's canon Sherlock Holmes being gay from the outset?* The hell, people? The PWP disclaimer is there for a purpose. Please use it.

If you want to develop him into somehow developing awareness of his sexuality later, that's your prerogative, but it's _not_ in ACD's canon. It's more probable that he's asexual than anything else, to be honest, though the writers of BBC Sherlock gave enough leeway for their interpretation to be homosexual in canon.

(2) Blatant OOC-ness that made me wonder why the writer bothered with fanfiction at all if the characters already bear no resemblance to the original.

Pairings: Nothing specific, I'm usually fine with interesting canon pairings. Note the use of the word interesting. Example: While I don't deny that a well-written RonxHermione in Harry Potter could be interesting, most fans seemed to have followed most canon Rowling's example of not expanding Ron's character much, and as such I usually steer away of that particular pair unless a story is very well recommended. I don't quite understand what his character is beyond 'the average guy', really. To be honest, poor Ron, but there's nothing to remedy about since the series titles doesn't even have his name on it. Sometimes I wonder if he's an NPC or a PC. Other than that, I read anything as long as a writer's fine skills can hone the concept convincingly.

Considering the above, I probably don't mind a lot of non-canon pairings as long as they're written in interesting ways. I will follow a good writer everywhere.