So, yeah, ego.  An ego that was stroked for years due to being the one artist and writer in one group of friends and then further fueled by the interwebs.  Needless to say, I’m an excellent candidate for experimenting on creative groups – I have more interest in the numbers and what they represent than how they reflect on my own work.  Hence my current experiment on the Castle fandom regarding review to read ratios, speed of reading and quality of reviews between FF.Net and the castle_fic LJ comm.  I mean, hey, if I’m going to be writing Castle fic like the fantard that I am, I may as well get some data out of it.

Hopefully I’ll be able to rope in some other authors who crosspost between LJ and FF.Net, plus ones that only post on FF.Net or LJ so I can get a proper set of data.

But I digress.

Last week, in a fit of boredom and annoyance, I decided that I was going to enter an OC contest for the #CriminalMindsLovers group on dA.  Yes, seriously, an OC contest.  Yes, I am 21, not 12.  Actually, that’s sort of why I entered.  You see, when I had decided to enter, the other entries consisted of hilarious emo Sues.  Because, yes, the BAU needs another child genius – Reid more than fills that role… and at least he’s in his late twenties, not eighteen with a pseudo-Japanese name.  So I was all, oh fuck you kids, I never created Sues as bad as that, even when I was your age!  (I haven’t – all my Mary Sues were the right age and they never had a ’special power’ that detracted from the canon characters.  Rather, they were almost complimentary to the cast.)

So I created Ana Novak, a geeky researcher/consultant who spends more time in Quantico than in the field.  Also, she’s in her thirties, isn’t stunningly beautiful or a genius.  She’s just an ordinary person with a fascination with overly violent crimes.  In other words, someone who could actually show up on Criminal Minds, unlike the eighteen year old punks that Hotch somehow allows to dress more extravagantly in the field than Garcia does in her batcave.  Riiight.  You’re representing the FBI (unlike Garcia – she’s a consultant/tech analyst and on a CIA watchlist and, thus, more valuable than the profilers), you’re not going to be allowed to wander around in ripped jeans.

So, yup, I went through the process of hacking up an admittedly bad drawing, submitting it and waiting until Sunday for the results.  They were exactly as I predicted (Sarah will corroborate - she was pretty certain of the opposite outcome) – I didn’t win.  Didn’t place anywhere.

Wanna know what charater won?

A sociopath.

Yes.

A fucking sociopath won a CM OC contest.  Fuck me – it’s Criminal Minds, not Dexter!

Oh!  And to make it even more hilarious?  Hotch doesn’t care that he’s a sociopath and the rest are creeped out by him but not sure why.

Yes.

A team of highly trained profilers, one of whom was involve with starting the fucking unit, wouldn’t notice or care that there’s a potential serial killer in their midst.  Cuz, y’know, it’s not like it is their job to notice these things or not.

dA is special.  I swear to god, fandom is always a dramatastic disaster but dA?  dA takes the cake in stupidity.

(At least the guy who won could draw… in a generic anime style, but, hey, better than nothing.)

PS:  Yes, I really don’t care that I won or lost – it was just a test to see what they were judging based on.  Clearly it was the ‘coolness’ or ‘uniqueness’ factor, not the ‘will this character actually fit in the universe’ category.  Besides, I got more than I expected out of this – Ana Novak actually fits quite nicely in the Caeverse.  She’s going to be the department’s profiler and violent crimes expert.

So, yeah, here is my results and now I will never have to take one of these tests again.  Oh, yeah, the test in question?  This one.

Lawful Neutral Elf Wizard (3rd Level)

Ability Scores:
Strength- 10
Dexterity- 14
Constitution- 13
Intelligence- 16
Wisdom- 17
Charisma- 14

Alignment:
Lawful Neutral- A lawful neutral character acts as law, tradition, or a personal code directs him. Order and organization are paramount to him. He may believe in personal order and live by a code or standard, or he may believe in order for all and favor a strong, organized government. Lawful neutral is the best alignment you can be because it means you are reliable and honorable without being a zealot. However, lawful neutral can be a dangerous alignment because it seeks to eliminate all freedom, choice, and diversity in society.

Race:
Elves are known for their poetry, song, and magical arts, but when danger threatens they show great skill with weapons and strategy. Elves can live to be over 700 years old and, by human standards, are slow to make friends and enemies, and even slower to forget them. Elves are slim and stand 4.5 to 5.5 feet tall. They have no facial or body hair, prefer comfortable clothes, and possess unearthly grace. Many others races find them hauntingly beautiful.

Class:
Wizards- Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard’s strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.

Detailed Results:

Alignment:
Lawful Good       XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (21)
Neutral Good      XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (18)
Chaotic Good      XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (15)
Lawful Neutral    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (25)
True Neutral      XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (22)
Chaotic Neutral   XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (19)
Lawful Evil       XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Neutral Evil      XXXXXXX (7)
Chaotic Evil      XXXX (4)

Law & Chaos:
Law       XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Neutral   XXXXXXX (7)
Chaos     XXXX (4)

Good & Evil:
Good      XXXXXXXXXXX (11)
Neutral   XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (15)
Evil     (0)

Race:
Human      XXXXXXXXXXXXX (13)
Dwarf      XXXX (4)
Elf        XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (16)
Gnome      XXXXXX (6)
Halfling   XXXXXXXX (8)
Half-Elf   XXXXXXXXXXXXXX (14)
Half-Orc   XX (2)

Class:
Barbarian   (-25)
Bard        (-25)
Cleric      XX (2)
Druid       (-4)
Fighter     (0)
Monk        (0)
Paladin     (-23)
Ranger      (0)
Rogue       (-2)
Sorcerer    XXXX (4)
Wizard      XXXXXXXXXX (10)

Keeping with the trend of doing this for my own benefit, I’ll probably end up posting entries containing excerpts from stories I’m working on or concept art, etc, etc.  Knowing me, though, that will rarely happen since I have problems with scanning let along transcribing stuff from my notebooks.  I’d scan the notebook entries themselves, but I write them illegibly on purpose so that wouldn’t work.

And, just for variety, I promise to throw in some science-y rants every now and then.  And some rants about computers and tech.  Yeah, that sounds good too.  Oooo, how about I also bitch about society and things that people do that I find stupid?  Or the internet in general?

Yeah. It’s my own personal soap box.

But isn’t that what blogs are for?