LiveJournal
From Shadow Unit Wiki
LiveJournal (http://www.livejournal.com) is a popular blogging and social-networking website.
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LiveJournal and Shadow Unit
Many fans of Shadow Unit have LiveJournal accounts, as do the Powers That Be.
Several characters also have LiveJournal accounts:
- Chaz Villette http://cvillette.livejournal.com/, http://standuponit.livejournal.com (see below)
- Daphne Worth http://trollcatz.livejournal.com/
- Hafidha Gates http://0metotchtli.livejournal.com/
- Solomon Todd http://ace-cub-reportr.livejournal.com/
- Erik Holt http://erik-not-erik.livejournal.com/
A significant amount of backstory can be found by reading through the characters' LiveJournals. The characters' LiveJournals allow the fans to interact with the characters. Occasionally, the authors will interact with the characters in LiveJournal. (e.g., [1])
All comments posted to a character's LiveJournal are screened, to prevent fourth wall breakage. Elizabeth Bear has stated that any fourth-wall-breaking comments in other people's LiveJournals are invisible to the characters. [2]
On April 13 2009, Elizabeth Bear stated that "Emma and I both do all the character journals. Sometimes, both of us are playing all the characters simultaneously in the same comment threads."
Chaz's LiveJournal Deletion
The Deletion
On October 22, 2008, Chaz's original LiveJournal (http://cvillette.livejournal.com/) was suddenly deleted; all links to pages in his journal return LiveJournal's standard HTTP 404-Not Found error page, which reads "Journal has been deleted. If you are cvillette, you have a period of 30 days to decide to undelete your journal."
The last LJ comment by Chaz prior to the deletion appears to be the one dated October 21 at 11:28pm EDT, in Daphne's LJ. Daphne had written:
- I want kitchen elves.
- Oh, wait.
- I have you.
- <3
to which Chaz replied:
- *hand appears from out of frame, passes you bheer*
The Reaction
A message board thread quickly erupted; Elizabeth Bear commented that there was "a narrative in progress", from which the fans concluded that Something Is Going On.
Further evidence that Something Is Going On appeared on October 26, when the vignette Arlington was posted. The vignette, which was dated "October 22, 2008, 3:27 AM", showed Chaz having nightmares (or possibly something worse) about a non-anomalous unsub named Joshua Lynch. Since Chaz's LiveJournal was deleted later that morning, the odds are that the two events are related.
The Undeletion
On October 28, Chaz's LiveJournal was undeleted. In an entry timestamped at 12:49AM, he wrote:
- Sorry about the drama. It was... it was an emotional decision, and I didn't handle it well. So yeah, I'm sorry. And I'm here to apologize, and to say thanks, and to explain a little.
The last two lines in the entry were:
- I'm not the same.
- I love you guys.
The New LiveJournal
On October 27, Chaz started a new LiveJournal, http://standuponit.livejournal.com/; a number of Shadow Unit fans have already friended him. On November 11, he started using his old LiveJournal as a place to record nightmares. [3]
2009-2010 Hiatus
On May 12 2009, Chaz posted "I may be gone for a while, guys. Don't worry and don't wait up. I'm fine." Neither Chaz nor Hafidha have posted since then (as of late July 2009), although Sol and Daphne have.
On July 21, Elizabeth Bear replied to a plaintive "Where's my Chaz?" with "Alas. That's an answer for next February...."
The fans, of course, are, of course, taking Chaz's advice.
