The following nerdish ranting is brought to you by the letter A, the number 87, and the Percy/Oliver Fic Carnival.

Despite the best efforts of Barnes & Noble, 'cool' kids, and Hollywood, there actually is a marked difference between science fiction and fantasy. Science fiction is all about science; it's the future and robots and dystopic regimes. Fantasy is, well, fantasy. It's all fairies and elves and vaguely mediaeval settings. And, frankly, never the twain shall meet.

What brought this on? you might ask. Well, I signed up to take part in the P/O Fic Carnival (the peanut gallery can now shut the hell up) and the scenario I was given is that aliens have attacked Hogwarts.

The fuck?

The whole logic behind the scenario is, I swear to god, 'magic and wizards and dragons exists, why not aliens?' Does no one a) understand the break between SF and fantasy and b) have any respect for basic logic structures?

Anyway, so now I have to somehow figure out how to work aliens into the Potterverse. I guess all those years watching The X-Files won't be wasted now.

**

I've been pondering the CSI AU Caroline tossed at me last night (Nick doesn't leave the force, but does leave Texas. Greg stays in San Francisco. They meet). I keep getting flashes of scenes, so I'm pretty sure I'm going to do something with it, but I need more character background before I can begin. Are there any good sites with that info?