La Cage Aux Folles, the Fics From Hell and yes, I may be delirious, how did you guess?

[raven]

Yes, I'm ill. Horribly so. I've drunk way too much coffee, said too many patently stupid things, found myself longing to go to bed at three o'clock in the afternoon and written incessantly. All classic signs. With me, anyway. I always find the first sign of exhaustion/general ickiness is a sudden dramatic loss of the little widget inside my head that stops me from saying absolutely everything that's on my mind. Which is where the "patently stupid things" bit comes in. I think there comes a point where you know you're a little bit more grown-up than you thought you were, and that is when your parents know you're drowning in viral toxins and saltwater, but they still go out. And they did. Go out, that is. They've gone somewhere to a dinner party - one of Pedar's colleagues, I think - and they didn't take Dadi. I asked why, and Pedar looked extremely uncomfortable. I asked my mother, who told me with relish that the family who are hosting are a Muslim family, and life would be difficult if they took my grandmother.

So, yes. It's her and me, but mostly me. I can't find things to talk to her about, so I have to lurk in my room like I did over the summer. I later found out from my mother that it has proved impossible to convince Dadi that I write for pleasure. She persists on believing all the hours I spend holed up with computer or pen are just because I am very, very studious. That's nothing much to do with tonight. I was in my room and writing through the blur in my head. Said blur is all the viruses setting up camp in my meninges or wherever, but they have the same effect on me as extreme tiredness does - they make me write.

I wrote. I wrote a lot. I finished off Fic From Hell #4. For clarification's sake:

Fic From Hell #1 - untitled, 12,000 words at present but feasibly novel-length, hasn't been touched for a fortnight.

Fic From Hell #2 - more or less complete, 8000 words, provisionally titled "Hunter's Moon", is currently in care of beta, language_idling.

Fic From Hell #3 - will most likely be called "Paragons", features too many original characters, including one named Colleen Cheetham, is 12,000 words, will probably finish off at about 15,000. Haven't done anything to it for three days now.

Fic From Hell #4 - sort of called "Special Needs", but subject to change, 5500 words and now complete.

Yes, Fic From Hell #4 - I shamelessly took advantage of hathy_col's boredom, and she gave it the world's quickest beta. I was very impressed. Anyway, it is complete, needs a bit more scribbling before I'm quite happy, but it's one of those fics that has really metamorphosed. What's the word that means pre-slash, but doesn't? Pre-het doesn't sound right... yes, a het pairing. A cross-gen het pairing. Makes me feel icky but it's so right. Call it a guilty pleasure.

Argh... my head hurts. I can't swallow. My feet and ankles gave way a long time ago and I can hardly walk. This is just not good.

I'm going to watch The Birdcage, the remake of La Cage Aux Folles. Channel Four at ten fifteen, if anyone wants to know. I've seen it before but I really love it, and it's time now, so au revoir.

I'm all coughed out. I need a hug.

Comments

Aw, poor thing...

[emerald-embers.livejournal.com]

*hugs and kisses* Mmmmmmph, get well soon doll, it's not fair you being ill. [incidentally, my parents say they know when I'm really ill because I stop coughing loudly. Normally my cough causes building foundations to collapse, but if I've gotten really sick, it starts to turn slowly into a pathetic little 'kweh' sound, because my lungs get tired].

*more hugs* *and more* *and a few more for good luck* *and sends you a large bottle of lucozade and packets of mints and a recipe for curry, as curry mints and lucozade are my way of getting through flus. Oh, and hot baths*

*decides not to bath you though, for the sake of you* *pet pet*

Re: Aw, poor thing...

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*coughs faintly*
*sinks gratefully into hugs*
*sucks on mints*
*puts curry carefully in fridge for mother*
*snuffles*

You're so lovely, and you're going away...

Re: Aw, poor thing...

[emerald-embers.livejournal.com]

You're lovely too hon, and at least I'll still be online, which is basically where we've seen each other solely for the past few months so we've had some time to get used to the whole new deal ^_^. I'm going to miss everyone pretty badly but hey... this way, I can get rich quicker than I would by taking a gap year to attempt to write whilst working in McDonalds, and afford a car and driving lessons. [Though, I suppose the mental image of my driving skills is a bit too terrifying for a delicate ill girl like yourself :). I apologise for any future squished cats and puppies and small old ladies.] And then I'll be able to visit everyone much more easily :).

Chin up hon, you'll feel better once you've started to get over the worst of this illness. Bonus is that feeling better can help fight illness too (proven fact! Optimists live longer), so you'll be in an upward spiral. In the meantime, have a big fluffy sofa to slump on *mails one over the internet to your house*, and keep yourself cosy. The AS & A-Level years feel way more dragged out than they should do, but they're over soon enough and then you can enjoy university with the rest of us. [bonus is, as most uni courses are 3/4 years long, you'll probably end up in the same uni as at least one of us! More so if you get into Manchester university. I swear to you, our year's sixth form is going to swarm into the whole of Manchester this week, and I have an online mate in Bolton while I'm in Salford keeping up the more suburbian ranks ^_^]

Anyhow, you get well ASAP, remember that a rcneet uivrestniy sudty showed that it doesn't matter if you mix up ltretes in a wrod as lnog as you keep the bngening and end ltretes in tehir correct positions as your brain can descramble them easily. Sorry if that sentence fries your brain, but someone put it up somewhere else and not only did it fascinate me as it was true, but I thought it was the sort of information you and Jane would appreciate :).

Re: Aw, poor thing...

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

You see why I'm going to miss you so much? You see? Who else would write me essays to cheer me up at one o'clock in the morning? Who else would conjure up mental images of crazed!Louise driving down the road and up the pavement and into people's living rooms whilst knocking little old ladies front right and centre?

Yes, I'm ill. Excuse the hallucinations.

And it's not just you I'm going to miss, but everyone, and these two years... well, they can't be over to quickly. I want to get out of here. And it simply hadn't occurred to me that I'd end up in the same university as one of you, but of course I will. And we will see each other again.

But I'm sitll giong to msis you.

[language-idling.livejournal.com]

That should be 'language_idling, the slowest beta of all time.'

See, I beta by hand, on paper, in pen. Just like I write fic by hand, on paper, in pen. I am so old school. And right now my printer is broken. Argh.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Don't worry about it. Right at this moment, my intelligence quotient isn't that much higher than a mollusc's, so betas are wasted on me... :)

[scarlatti.livejournal.com]

Poor Raven...I hope you feel better soon! Writing fic is a Good Thing, but it's not so nice when you have to be ill to do it.

*offers hugs*
*offers chocolate*
*sneaks a li'l bit of comforting chocolate for herself* :)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*snuffle* Thank you.
*eats chocolate*
*sets some aside for Susan so she doesn't have to sneak it*

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

*huggles*

There, there dear. And I only beta quickly because I read quickly, and pick up spelling mistakes every time. It's a useful skill. and it wasn't one of those terrible fics that people sometimes send me which I have to put a red pen all over every line bcause there's something wrong!

Feel better soon. Colds are miserable.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*sneezes*
Thank you. For the beta and the get-well wishes. Thou art not the only one who has to do Politics. I have to go and sneeze my way through the features of Thatcher's government...

[just-the-ash.livejournal.com]

I second the curry suggestion, along with loads of Vitamin C if you can get it.

Now, what's wrong with letting your grandmother think that you are the Most. Studious. Student. Evar? Doesn't that gain you virtue points?

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I guess it does. It's just rather uncomfortable knowing I will one day have to shatter all her rosy illusions... :)