przed

The Sweetie might not be a slash fan himself, but he takes a certain pleasure in pointing out slashiness where he finds it and in coming up with crazy slash pairings and story ideas. He seems to be outdoing himself in this when it comes to Take That.

This probably all started last week when I started quizzing him to see how much TT information he'd absorbed just by being exposed to me.

Me: So do you know any of their names?
Sweetie: Well, there's the Duck Man. (Note: The Sweetie calls Howard Donald the Duck Man because he says he has the name of two ducks. He considers this amusing. Another Note: The Sweetie shares one of those names.)
Me: ::gives Sweetie the evil eye::
Sweetie: Okay, Howard Donald.
Me: Okay, who else.
Sweetie: Um, Jason Orange.
Me: And…
Sweetie: I don't know. The other ones.
Me: Heh. You know, Howard and Jason are usually the ones who gets called the other ones.
Sweetie: Hey, I've got an idea. Why don't you write a story called Duck à L'Orange.
Me: No!
Sweetie: Please!
Me: Absolutely not!
Sweetie: Pretty please!

He kept up the begging. For a while. I'll spare you the details, but you get the idea.

Then, last night, as we were both collapsing, he really outdid himself.

Me: I just finished writing OT3 smut!
Sweetie: Who with?
Me: Who do you think?
Sweetie: Which members of Take That? No, wait! How about two members of Take That and a member of Oasis.
Me: Ah, but which member of Oasis? (I know. I shouldn't encourage him.)
Sweetie: Let's say Noel. I know! It should be a vampire AU. Noel's a vampire. Robbie can be his Renfield. And he's trying to corrupt another member of Take That. Who's the most innocent one?
Me: That would be Mark. Sort of.
Sweetie: So they're trying to corrupt Mark. Oh, and how about all those '90s BritPop bands are also vampire clans, and they're all trying to get members of Take That to join them
Me: O_O
Sweetie: Damon Albarn's a vampire, and so is Jarvis Cocker. Oh, man, I wished I wrote. I'd totally write this.
Me: I'm glad you don't.
Sweetie: C'mon, you have to admit it would totally work. It would practically write itself.
Me: The scary thing is, you're kinda right.

Apparently he's not letting go of the vampire thing, because he brought it up at dinner again today.

Sweetie: So, I've been thinking about the vampire AU.
Me: Really?
Sweetie: Yeah. I've been trying to match up members of Take That with the BritPop bands. Is there one of them who's intellectual and snotty.
Me: Well, Jason's the intellectual one, but he's not snotty. None of them is really snotty.
Sweetie: Okay, he should totally be in Blur. They can convert him and make him be snotty. That or he can end up in Pulp.
Me: Okaaaay.
Sweetie: I'm just trying to figure out if the Take That guys should be good guys, or if they should be totally evil. It could work either way.
Me: You're spending too much time thinking about this, you realize?

The best part is, he DOESN'T LIKE TAKE THAT. At all. I've totally infected his brain. Bwahahaha.

Mind you, if I start writing a TT vampire AU, you'll know where it came from.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

kayberrisford.livejournal.com

Chris loved TT4, but used to loathe Robbie, so I was glad when he was utterly converted by "Shame", and in the end, he loved the Robbie part of the show rather *too* much for my liking! But, yes, I'm lucky. He demanded the Progress DVD as soon as it got out of its box on Xmas day, and has watched it more than I have!!

Aw, yes, maybe 7 is a little young to actually be there, but I bet she loves the DVDs -- *g*! My niece and nephew (3 and 5) are addicted to The Circus. I Progress had Isobel (3) saying it was all a bit scary in SOS, though!!

From:

przed.livejournal.com

The big guy has had a lot longer to get used to Robbie. We watched him from our tent at Glastonbury in '98. (We had no idea who he was. Or who Take That were, for that matter. I remember the two of us reading his bio in the Glasto programme and giggling over the ridiculousness of his story. Now, of course, I see it rather differently.) Then I dragged him to see Robbie the next year when he was trying to crack North America and was playing a small club in Toronto. He doesn't exactly like Robbie, but he'll admit he's one hell of a showman.

I'd love to take Ros to see them eventually. I just hope they stay together until she's ten or so. She does really like the DVDs, though her attention usually fades after about five numbers. She likes the clown medley in The Circus, and Shine in Progress. She was taken with Robbie and Let Me Entertain you, but I think he baffles her. She was also rather too taken with It Only Takes a Minute on Beautiful World when I accidentally let her see it. (It had already started when I realized what a bad idea it was to let her see it. And then she was fascinated and wouldn't let me skip forward. She thought Howard and Jason pole-dancing was hilarious. But then she tried doing the same thing when she was at the park with the Big Guy the next week... ::was mortified::)

From:

kayberrisford.livejournal.com

It sounds like you've got about the right level of attention from your sweetie -- at least he won't be nicking your DVDs. Funnily enough, I think Chris was also at Glasto in '98. Not me, mind. I don't do tents and mud (I'd probably not even do it for TT, seeing as it's televised....well, maybe ;))

Hehe, oh dear!! I haven't got my sis beautiful world,so no risk of that yet, although when I put it on when we were all on holiday together once. IOTAM had my Dad waking up rather suddenly, and then he got awfully confused when the boys did it too. He's never quite grown accustomed to TTs gender blurring antics -- or my books!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From:

przed.livejournal.com

He definitely won't be nicking my DVDs. (He's usually an enabler when it comes to my vidding, but when I was bitching about how tough it is to get the footage I need to vid TT he was mostly baffled.)

We're campers, but Glasto in '98 was...something. The mud was epic, and we were glad we'd got in late when there was no tenting space nearer the stages. The people who got prime spots woke up on Friday morning with 4 inches of mud and water in their tents. I'd do it again, but I'd go very, very prepared (Wellies, a better rain poncho, the lot.)

Ros was went nuts when the boys reversed the gender roles in IOTAM. She started clapping her hands and said, and I quote, "Mummy, look! The boys are like girls and the girls are like boys!" If nothing else, I like to think it opened her mind to the fluidity of gender roles, which is only a good thing.

Wow, your dad knows about your books? My mom's read my one professionally published story, which had a gay couple at its centre, but my dad passed away just before it came out, and I think it would have freaked him out.

From:

kayberrisford.livejournal.com

My dad kind of knows. Not the details ;) That might be a bit too much. My mum would read it, but I haven't encouraged her.

I'd love to read your story, btw! Is it available for download anywhere?

Definitely yay for TT channeling gender fluidity! They've done some sterling work over the years, me thinks!!

Eeep, yes, it might have been reports like that that put me off camping for life!! But I'm sure it must have been worth it for an awesome experience :)

From:

przed.livejournal.com

My story was pretty tame, so I figured my mum could handle it. I'd never let her near my more explicit stuff.

The story was in a POD anthology called Lace and Blade 2, and it's kinda hard to get hold of now. But I have a PDF of my story if you'd like me to send it to you. Just let me know the addy.

Between Ros liking TT, having me for a mum, and having a crush on our gay neighbours, I reckon she's well set for having a healthy view of sexual orientation. :)

Glasto was awesome (we'd gone for Pulp, Blur, and Nick Cave, who were all fab) but trying. It is definitely not for everyone.

From:

kayberrisford.livejournal.com

I've found Lace and Blade 2 on amazon!! I can order it for a few dollars, so don't worry about the PDF :D For convoluted reasons, I'd quite like to set up an amazon.com account, so if I can get it posted to the UK, then that's will be cool! I'll sort that out later -- I think it looks great :D

Hehe, I'm the same with my mum. Not the more explicit stuff. She betas the tamer stuff, but there's not been too much of that lately ;)

Hmmmmm, well, as Halo pointed out, 'trying' or not, looks like I'll be as Glasto if the boys ever do rock up ;)

From:

przed.livejournal.com

Cool. It is a rather lovely anthology, so I'm sure there'll be other stories you'll enjoy. And I hope you'll like mine.

I've been wanting to go back to Glasto, but the Sweetie has been reluctant. However, if the boys ever showed up there, I'd be there like a shot, family in tow. ;-)

From:

kayberrisford.livejournal.com

Yay! I can't wait for it to arrive :D

Oooooh, I'll see you there if they do ;D I know Markie used to go quite a bit just to hang out (there are pics as recent as 2007). Ah, that would be fun, to wake up in the morning and find a muddy Markie in the next tent (apart from I think he wussed out and had a caravan in the VIP area!! I even read he once opened a caravan show so they'd lend him one to take!!) Now, if camping involved sharing a luxury caravan with Markie I might become rather keen ;)

From:

przed.livejournal.com

You'll have to let me know what you think of the story. (It started life, in a very different shape, as a Pros story set during the Queen's Jubilee. There are virtually no remnants of that left, except the two main characters look rather a lot like Bodie and Doyle.)

Running into a muddy Markie at Glasto would be mind blowing. As for the wussing out, if I had the option of a caravan in the VIP area, I'd take it like a shot. ;-)

From:

kayberrisford.livejournal.com

Hehe, you know, I went to an glbt writers convention last year, where basically everyone there was a woman writing m/m romance. When they asked who had converted a fanfic, EVERYONE PUT UP THEIR HANDS ;) I can't wait to read. I think it's a great way to write, as you can get the core of a story written in a relaxed way without the pressure and with the instant hit of feedback, and then later add a bit of character building, or whatever's missing. I can't wait to read :D

That's agreed then. We're all piling in with Markie, whether he likes it or not!!!!