Madame De Pompadour

Tucked soundly in her upstairs drawing room, Reientte sat as close as might be allowed to the fire without fear of catching her skirts aflame. She let the warmth of it wash over her. The heat was a friendly sort, one that crackled and allowed fingers to turn the pages of a book with ease. It certainly kept out the chill that inevitably sat latent within the halls of her home. It was beautiful, and remodeled to the most exact detail. But there was little to do for the cold that often filled it.

At least now she was less susceptible to it. Despite her initial protestations at Jack's doctors and their medicines? She could not deny how different this winter felt. How different she felt. The season that once brought countless bleedings and inevitable weeks spent in bed were now free for books and walks and wondering.

Like where Jack was now. How what sort of trouble she had found himself in this time.

I know that I have not been around at all of late. To pretend otherwise would simply be that.

Pretend.

But I wanted to let everyone know here that I do think of all of you. Often. Happily. And that on today especially, I feel the need to say thank you. For every conversation. For every shared pleasure. For each and every word written together on the way to telling stories that I will always treasure.

It means so very, very much.

Thank you.

And I hope everyone has the happiest, brightest of holidays.

This is how people amuse themselves? Truly. That really is the most ridiculous expression.

The I'D HIT IT Meme


OOC:I am still out of town until tomorrow! Not that I am exactly active in the kindest sense of the word. But? Tomorrow. I miss everyone.

There were a great many things about Jack Harkness that were endearing. Far to many things, truthfully. Though that was a matter Reinette was studiously choosing not to examine. If one wished to narrow it however? To an acceptable, manageable quantity?

His smile, certainly. His scent. Which was somehow in now way affected despite any smug glances that might be cast her way if Jack caught her lingering too long. A sense of humor that met so easily with her own. The way in which he included her within the scope of her own life, which was remarkable for how far he truly sat outside of it. And yet still, somehow? Within in. Working his way into spaces she had yet to recognize were even there. Which should not be a balm to someone that prided herself on her lever of awareness.

And then, of course? Was Jack's expression when he slept. He looked impossibly young then. The edges fell away, wit replaced with warmth and punctuated by the subtle lines that creased the corners of his eyes -- never quite gone.

She could sit contentedly, Reinette thought, and simply watch him.

Excepting that Jack seemed to hold different ideas.

One with sat quite firmly atop her list of Jack's less than appealing qualities.

He really was impossible to sleep with. And if he were awake? She would tell him so, in no uncertain terms, just to see how the words sat on his face. You, Jack Harkness, are impossible to sleep with.

She would laugh if Jack's arm was not currently being thrown inelegantly across the bed, catching her squarely in the shoulder. For a moment Reinette thought she might be able to right herself. She hovered in that place of balance and control only to feel it slip through her fingers. She filled the void they left by grasping at the sheet, pulling it firmly only to feel it slip from around Jack and fully give.

Reinette landed in a tangled heap on the floor, her hip catching something in between.


Understanding came a breath too late.

There are certain things that are inevitable within the worlds we inhabit. Interests will be born, even as others fade. Ideas will come and go. Friends will be born and sadly sometimes die. But in between? Through it all? There is the magnificent up and down and here and there and sideways of it all.

There is the written word.

What we share together. How we communicate. The ones that made us laugh and the ones that made us cry. The ones that kept us up until 4am. The ones that we thought about on the drive to work. That next sentence, that next thought, that next emotion. The journeys that are utterly unique to the people we took them with.

Some of us have been doing this for a long time now. We are not all friends with the people that we started some journeys with. Some we have grown into something deeper with, past the online world. Some? We have slipped into lovely, but casual acquaintances. Some we might not speak to at all.

But if you are like me?

You still revisit those journeys, those once upon a times.

So this is a request for everyone, out there to reflect back over their journeys and to make sure they are protected through the upcoming LJ purge. The memories attached to them should not matter, as much as they are simply, inherently memorable. Because not just journals are in danger, but communities as well. Communities that might hold entire bodies of work that are larger than any of us.

Please, those of us that were former moderators? Or have posting status? Protect what so much time and effort once went to create.

Because even if not all journeys linger?

The word should remain.


UPDATE : LJ has since redefined what they consider inactive for something that more favors roleplaying journals and communities. That said, I know I will now take past work and memories less for granted and do my best to ensure they are protected.

I am not exactly sure it is appropriate to call this an hiatus as I have hardly been around, but I am in San Francisco for the next week for work and will be even LESS around. But until I return home, and possibly post a story I scribbled out on the plane?

everybody's gonna love today, love today, love today!
everybody's gonna
❤❤ LOVE ME, HEY! ❤❤

The time has come, I think, for me to address the countless misconceptions that I encounter nearly every day while writing and following Reinette. While I have vented verbally to many, on many occasions, I have decided to collect all the points I can recall here.

If you do not like Reinette? I would read no further. After all, you might learn something.

Reinette is not a 'Mary Sue'. She is(was) an actual, true, flawed and fully realized woman that left her mark on many lives around her and history itself. Yes, some of these traits were 'listed off' in a rather fast fashion in the episode but that made them no less true. She was not created as the 'anti Rose' or someone to show her up or to hurt her feelings. But she was flawed as well, and some of that was even there quite clearly in the episode if watched. Her ambition, her curiosity and even her temper when challenged. The fact that she could walk into his mind is most often used in the Mary Sue defense. I point out that the Doctor walked Reinette's mind FIRST when she was a child, and like all children learn other languages with ease? I believe this planted the seed. The real woman spoke FIVE languages. By the time she learned to walk the Doctor's mind it became her natural sixth.

Her name is not Pompawhore or Pompaho or even Grrrrr Reinette. Her name was Jeanne Antionette Poisson and by the end of her life she was even further elevated from her title as Marquise to an actual Duchess. Now, she was ACTUALLY mocked for her name in her time, which was French for fish. When she became Louis' lover the Court wasted no time making witticisms about it. But that is another story.

She hated Rose. No, Reinette did NOT hate Rose. Indeed they shared a moment of true understanding in the ship, that contained that lovely, stunning line that he was 'worth the monsters'. They both knew how the other felt. There was no 'cat fight'. No one cried. They were both strong women that found something to respect in the other. Yet in countless things I read Reinette hated her. This makes no logical sense whatsoever and is absolutely baseless.

That said, yes. Reinette did call Rose a child. And to be fair, at that point in her life? Rose was. At that age, 32, Reinette had now married. She bore a son only to bury him before he was a year old and a daughter that had passed away just before she had seen Rose. She had suffered anywhere from 4-5 miscarriages depending on historical record. She witnessed war and loved and lost a king. Yes, Rose was a child to her perception. This does not make Reinette a 'bitch'. People often warp this scene to suggest the entire nature of her personality, ripping it from its context.

Really, what was the big deal, she only knew him a DAY! Actually, no. The Doctor experienced Reinette's life in the course of a day. She knew the Doctor through near the whole of her life. He was with her, in some form her fashion, from the age of seven until the age of thirty-seven. THIRTY years. Not every day, no. But childhood, the beginning of womanhood, the even of her greatest accomplishment and then very near the end. He was there, a part of the experience. THIRTY YEARS. So why is her journey an less profound than Rose's? Why should she matter so much less. Why do they have to be weighed, one again the other, at all?

Oh, and by the way? Reinette kissed the Doctor. Not the other way around. Reinette. Kissed. The Doctor. He just sort of actively stood about and allowed it to happen. And, to be completely fair? She knew nothing at all about Rose other than that she was the vague shadow of a face in a fireplace that until THAT point? Was a childhood friend. So really, her kissing the Doctor could have nothing whatsoever to do with Rose at all. Her childhood hero was in front of her. Most likely now the night in all her growing up fairytales. She kissed him. I can think of few people who would not have seized that opportunity. Should people take issue that the DOCTOR allowed himself to be kissed? Perhaps, I suppose. But to that point he was really nothing more than a fanboy of a historical person he admired (and since the episode was written for Nine who was SUCH a fanboy?) An that the kiss while intimate was brief? I hardly think so.

She is a whore. This is said far more often than really is polite. She was a King's mistress, yes. But exclusively. An truly the physical aspects of sex were actually a challenge for Reintte and her health the whole of her life and ultimately ended her relationship with Louis. As for the portrayal of her relationship with the Doctor? She went for what she wanted. With a man she stated quite openly that she loved. What exactly is the problem?

Reinette lived in the 1700's which is the EIGHTEENTH century and she did NOT live during the Revolution. Well, that's all I really have to say on that one. Moving on.

Madame DE Pompadour Not du. DE.

She's such a bitch. The Doctor was trapped. He was already beginning to resign himself to that fate and what it would mean for the time being. But Reinette had seen into his mind and into his heart. To his love of the sky and the stars, his companions and his TARDIS. And even though she knew it would break her heart, to the point she could not bear to 'wish him luck' she gave it all back to him, and sent the man she loved home. It was the ultimate selfless act. Where, exactly, is the bitch?

These are just things I can assert by speaking of Reinette and Reinette alone. There are countless other points I could make. That in thinking of saving Reinette on the end, it did NOT mean the Doctor STOPPED thinking of Rose. They do not have to be intertwined acts. That there is the VERY REAL possibility that Reinette spent far more time with the Doctor that carried far more meaning. Five minutes spent with Mickey and Rose allowed the child Reinette to age from child to woman. How would the time at the Yew Tree ball and their last moments spent together translate to. That yes, I do firmly believe that they slept together but that was far from the most intimate thing that was shared.

That Reinette in no way deserves the hate and disdain that has been heaped on her.

Any questions?

From Alaska I have returned! And of course I celebrate with a meme. I missed everyone!!

Go to my user pics and then pick:

1. Your favorite.
2. Your least favorite.
3. One that makes you automatically think of me.
4. One that you think I should TOTALLY use more often.
5. One that you don't get/needs more explanation/you have no idea why the hell I have it.

1 question...
1 chance...
1 honest answer...

That is all you receive . Ask me one question. Any one question, anything, no matter how strange in may seem. An honest answer. It is that simple.

All comments will be screened so your question stays private between you and me, and only you will get to see my answer to your question. But I dare you to repost this and see what people ask you.

So I have been especially quiet of late as life has been especially difficult for many, many reasons. Some big some small and some in between. Between damaging my had with a screwdriver, getting more teeth out, work and me personal life?

Reinette, I have failed you. I do hope to be more active soon, and writing some more short stories. Especially as the anniversary of her death is tomorrow and I always try and mark the occasion.

But I will be disappearing again soon, making my way to Alaska again soon for over a week. I will be making a similar post on my personal journal, but if anyone work like a postcard sent FROM Alaska just post a screened comment here with your name and address and I will send winging your way!

To those that have always been there, thank you. You know how I feel.