Thoughts on the Journey

I went to PAX East this weekend and saw Oxventure in person which was a lot of fun and overwhelming. PAX is a gigantic con, where I found some cool things, met neat people and tried not to get run over by multiple people. The cosplay was great, I didn't really get pictures since the expo floor was a lot. Since I was pretty much there just for a show on Saturday, I didn't really play any demos or tabletop but had a meet up with fellow Oxventure fans. I bought some absolutely beautiful dice and finally got myself a bard pin. It was a nice reminder of all the cool board games and such out there and makes me miss the gaming club I was part of in NZ with board games and tabletop. I appreciated how everyone was masked up and do want to go to cons again just smaller ones.

In terms of roleplaying, I think I'm back in a place where my writing is getting there. Andor and my complicated feelings about it left me with not as much writing brain. Deciding that's not my Cassian seemed to have been the step I needed and putting that on Cassian's profile for Milliways. I have some fics dealing with and inspired by Andor, mainly kind of spiteful ones of let me point out how awful these people are kind of thing. But I'm also feeling ready to go back to some of my works in progress.

Spring is finally starting to happen here which always makes me feel hopeful. I didn't get another option for more hours at work but they were impressed by me so that feels okay. I knew I wouldn't be the first choice, so that's alright.

I'm feeling accomplished and a little tired but in a good way tonight. Yesterday I was able to get my flu and booster jabs, so far my arm's a little sore and I'm kind of achey. Thankfully I didn't have to work today so I was able to have a slow day which suited me. First I finally got my car taken care of at the great garage I've found near work; inspection and oil change and apparently a bulb change.

Then I had an interview at where I work which was really good and involved them saying so someone's leaving, there will be more hours to fill, could you? I said yes, the position I was originally interviewing for doesn't have a lot of hours but I'd actually be properly working for the library. This was them going, we want to use you more. It also felt good since I stood up for myself and said, no, I won't work every Saturday, every other yes but not every one and they listened. They know how valuable I am, which it feels good.

Last night I did my Yuletide app, which was remarkably hard this year especially with Andor available. If you've talked to me on other places, you'll know that I'm having all kinds of conflicting feelings about this show. I love how incredibly well done and thoughtful it is, but the changes to Cassian's timeline and story leave me conflicted and wanting more for him. So I decided to offer to write for it and to request it, we'll see what happens. Knowing how my Yuletide's tend to go, I'll probably end up writing something for a DWJ canon.

In good home stuff, I've been putting more things up on my walls, this is taking longer because I can only use sticky stuff, no holes. And I'm not as familiar with what they can all hold and I have a lot of art, but I like how its coming along. I need to find a new way to display my stickers as the shapes from Target keep falling off the wall as well as more places to display pins.

( Health stuff about insect stings and allergies )

I've been meaning to update for a bit but life has been busy. I just took a take home Covid test for the first time and it was thankfully negative. Sadly a lot of other librarians have been positive, so my week got much busier. Also because they're repairing my building roof, I don't get to turn on AC except for the weekend, at least its a little cooler now. Oh and I've had good conversations around work and there's an opening I'm going to apply for. Not the best fit or all the hours I want but it will get me interviewed which will be nice.

The Vanity Fair article came out with info about Andor, I'm feeling cautiously hopeful. It was great to hear how Diego Luna was involved and the story that was laid out seemed like it could work. I'm just not getting my hopes too high.

An odd benefit of my May being so busy is that I think I'll get to June and birthday and vacation quicker. Now if my allergies would just stop making me congested, I'd be happy and need to figure out a time to mail my brother's birthday present.

I’m home after a good Thanksgiving that involved lots of time with family, some cooking and shopping. My sister wasn’t doing great but she’s starting a new round of meds and chemo which hopefully will help and get her out of the difficult limbo we’ve all been in. I enjoyed doing a lot of reading especially on the train ride especially a fascinating book called Last Hope Island about the role of the United Kingdom and truly London during World War II.

I’m also having the rather surreal experience of going through the interview process for the job I currently have since its an open job. So I’m through the first round and will soon be having a phone interview with my current boss and the search committee.

Having a break has also reenergized some of my writing as did this book. I’m hoping in December to get some more writing done including for fun things like the Cassian prompt-a-thon and working more on my Yuletide.

Today since the weather was nice, I went out exploring. I had gotten a discount for a coffee shop that turned out to not actually be what I was hoping for. It was in a store, didn't have anything for lunch and hand uncomfortable seats. Instead I ended up having lunch in a local sandwich/hoagie kind of place which was just right. I was reminded how its actually not that hard to get in between the various neighborhoods in my area. I live in a part of Boston with hills and twisty streets so sometimes things are closer than expected and other times farther.

Day 8

In your own space, share a favorite piece of original canon (a TV episode, a song, a favorite interview, a book, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much.

So my first instinct on this was to go Rogue One as its been inspiring me and fueling me for over a year. Then I thought harder and want to talk about the Rogue One novelization, because it was what gave me inspiration. This novelization is amazing as it gets inside everyone's heads but especially Cassian's with all his pain. It also showed me places to expand and poke at canon.

Day 9

In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you have created.

This challenge is always a little tricky but I've gotten better at recognizing that I'm a good writer and feeling comfortable promoting it. For this year, I'm going to focus on works that are firsts for me.

The Death Star Job, my first chaptered fic, my longest fic ever and also the most complex AU that I've ever written. This is a Leverage and Rogue One fusion built on the idea that Eliot and Cassian served together and are friends since to me they feel like the same kind of character. Its not finished yet but I have the next two chapters planned out and most of the next chapter drafted. Sometimes I've gotten in my head with this fic as it hasn't had a lot of kudos but there's at least one loyal reader and subscribers which means other people are interested. Also once I figured out that what mattered wasn't the plot but the relationships around the plot, it worked better. Leverage is good at using plot and tropes to give relationships depth and time while Rogue One had powerful interactions and not enough time. That helped me go, okay, I can do the plot in key scenes and really lean into conversations and moments.

It's you and me, a series of four fics set in an Everyone lives Rogue One AU. This actually started with the second fic and then the other ones kind of dropped into my head going, nope, story's not over yet.

Its really hard to pick a third one as I've been doing a lot of stretching in terms of writing this year with backstories, AUs, funny fics and other things. So I think I'll end with one that I really like.

Echoes is a fic about what kind of impression Cassian left behind. The heart of it is that I love history and wonder a lot what kind of marks Cassian left in his world. And I have this headcanon of Poe, who loves Rebellion history and is fascinated by this spy who was at the heart of Rogue One, but few records remain of.

I think I have an odd sort of pattern of moving and then acquiring new headvoices because Cassian Andor has made himself comfortable. The only issue is that since I have ten pups, I need to retire or delete one and at first I was going to do Ivan, but realized I don't actually play Jane as much. I feel like since there isn't a Tom, she would make the most sense to shift away as I have a lot of ideas for Cassian. Though its nice to have her to interact with some of the other era pups but William fills much of the same roll and he's consistently louder.

My other choices are Tumnus and Ivan, Ivan has been tricky but I love my castmates and want to leave myself open with him. Tumnus, I adore even though plotwise, I don't have a lot happening but I love having him. I want to do a lot of playing him before canon as I find the idea of Rebel spy full of possibilities and he's such a complex character.

Also my sister is now eating solid food and looking on the way to healing.