Thoughts on the Journey

I've seen Star Wars and wow, that was amazing. I want to own the soundtrack, watch it again and talk about it since there's so much in it. Oh and I want to go find more of the books and comics to read them.

Today I also did a little fun shopping with my holiday money and finally got to look around a Torrid shop and I approve. The clothes are cute and fun and I found an awesome Star Wars shirt with Rey front and center. Also its wonderful to be a place where when something doesn't work, its because I don't like the style not it makes me feel like I don't fit.

Tomorrow I'm going to help out at the Noon Year's Eve at the local library which I've done before and loved. Then small family party before friend of my father's is coming to visit. I'll be finding time to tag as I've brought Charles in from after XMFC canon and he's fascinating. I do love him.

From umadoshi a meme I like as I'm starting to reach that moment of eek, a week from today I'll be in Chicago for Midwinter and I'm getting substitute calls. All of this is good but a lot at once so I'm going to do a writing meme.

When you see this, share 3 random lines from 3 WIPs. Now all of these WiPs are ones that I haven't touched in a while, maybe all the upcoming travel will help to get my writing game in gear again.

The first is a bit that was originally in my ineedmyfics story about Sam Wilson but didn't fit.

“What happened next, Miss James?” The lawyer’s voice was kind as Teresa, who had been a mechanic in Iraq clenched her hands and sought out his eyes. He gave her a nod, he believed in her and understood what had happened.

Then there's an AU about Charles and Erik where they're both captured and their memories are messed with.

She gave him a look and he managed a smile for her as she left, he didn’t want her to become annoyed with him, but he needed space and Erik. Why was it so important to have Erik there?

The last one is me going through the October Daye books with a slant on Quentin and Raj, this is a moment from Late Eclipses.

Quentin grumbled before Raj laid down on top of him and immediately fell to sleep with a rumbling in his chest that felt sort of nice. The way Raj was it was hard to move, so he ended up sagging and finally sleeping until the alarm on his phone went off and he felt Raj’s claws in his legs, “Ow, get up.”

Thanks to bjornwilde, I've seen the newest X-Men: Days of Future Past clip and it worries me so much. Spoilery thoughts under the cut.

( I don't get it. )

The more I'm seeing of this film, the less and less I think its going to work. At least with fic and RP I can go AU and with the awful crap going on about Bryan Singer, its looking more and more likely that I won't go to the theater for this one. I'll just rent it at some point and consider it a weird bit of AU fiction.

This week the weather has turned, its been rainy, cloudy and windy every day. Its nice to have it feeling like Fall again but I think the grey has been dampening my mood slightly, which I don't like. Though I have been getting things done as I'm working on another job application and I need to do far more of them. They just never get easier, but other stuff is happening. My car is back and registered in Delaware and slowly, slowly all my ties to the bureaucratic stuff in Michigan is going away.

I signed up for Yuletide with many requests and offers because I kept noticing options that I hadn't seen before. I may regret this but I love the challenge of writing something I haven't written before, it makes me happy.

If you follow me on Goodreads, sorry about all the reviews this week, I'd fallen farther behind than I meant to but it did prompt a librarian post. Too Many Books to Review, I have another post I plan to write as well about how I keep getting into conversations with my parents friends about how can you read fantasy?

Let's see, the other good news is that the Age Spell plot has started in Milliways and I'm having a huge amount of fun with ten year old Charles.

As it rains outside, I'm sitting and listening to the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington on NPR and remembering why I chose to be an educator and a librarian. This past year while I worked in the suburbs around Detroit, I learned a lot by seeing how the internet has opened ways for young people to explore more of the world and question it. Yet I also saw how adults wouldn't listen because there were some truths that they weren't ready to deal with. I hope that the speeches today are heard and do make a change because listening to each other and understanding that we all need each other matters. Its heartening to hear the lists of everyone who counts in the speeches because it shows that in fifty years, more people are recognized. There's a lot to do and if I can help by providing access to books that better reflect the make up of America and access to online resources and a safe space for young people then I'll do it.

I've been rattling around in my parents' house in Delaware, which I really needed. Being by the coast makes me happy and settled in a way that's helps me feel better. Part of that is lots of pictures because this area is beautiful and my parents have created a wonderful haven for themselves here. Most of the pictures have been posted on my Twitter and Tumblr, but if you don't follow me there, on Instagram I'm here and you can look over them. Sadly Instagram doesn't make it easy to post images into blog posts or else I'd do that more often. I've been going for walks and taking care of various errands plus finishing up a few fics. Also due to being a writer, I listen to this history and find myself wanting to write about Charles listening to these speeches with his first few students and realizing that change can come about. I really wish that Pacific Rim was playing somewhere nearby because I could do with a rewatch of it.

One nice benefit of my parents' place is that they have a big TV, no cable but an Apple TV so I've been catching up on various shows. I've now watched most of the older seasons of Warehouse 13, the first season of New Girl, which I loved, some of Parks and Recreation which didn't really catch me, The Vicar of Dibley and various other movies and shows that catch my attention. Sadly I haven't figured out how to mirror my computer on the TV, I think its because my laptop is older than Airplay, but I'll sort it out at some point. And I hope soon to start working at my local library, which will be wonderful. Its a great library and a place that I enjoy being in.

FicFriday returned last week with lots of wonderful prompts.
( Twitter fics> For @minkhollow42 <i>Dem, to everything there is a season</i>  )

My mind was a rather strange place last night as I dreamed that I was not Batman and not exactly Bryce Wayne but someone in between. I was investigating something at a girl's boarding school that reminded me of the main castle in Prague. As in there was the entire little city in this small space, it was a claustrophobic sort of dream. Also at some point in the dream, I turned into a student who was lost and couldn't figure anything out.

I'm pretty sure I know why I had such a dream, that was because last night I watched the season finale of Hannibal and then before going to bed finished reading The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie and there were unexpected parallels going on.

( Spoilers for Hannibal, entire season and A.B.C Murders )

Otherwise, I'm finding it weird to not be heading off to work and so am spending a lot of my time writing and preparing to head to the ALA conference in Chicago from June 27th to July 1st. I'm excited and scared as I know there's more I need to be doing to really be at my best for looking for a job. I have blog posts that I should get writing but mainly that words I keep getting at the moment are fandom ones. I did get some minicards made up for myself, which I love. They have all my pertinent information on them and as my Wordpress blog is pretty much my digital portfolio, they should work.

On Wednesday, I went to the Detroit Zoo and had an amazing time, it was wonderful to just wander around and enjoy the crowds of kids and the beautiful weather. The only annoying part was that when I was trying to get a picture of the prairie dogs, I missed where the concrete changed and skinned my elbow and acquired a nice bruise on my knee. I'm still a little sore since I didn't fall all the way down, I took a major bump. I think I might end up doing another post with just those pictures or at least some of my favorites for those who don't follow me elsewhere to see them.

In terms of fandom writing, I wrote a femslash piece for the Marvel Femslash Prompt Fest, its a little out of my normal round but the prompt clicked for me. Harder than Steel, which is Raven/Emma and explicit.

Today has also been a busy day as the DE was a prompt one and I wrote a number of fics, some of I might expand out and I'm still open for more prompts there.

It was also FicFriday over on Twitter and I'm still taking prompts there as well.
( Twitter Fics )

I have thoughts on the goodbye lunch, the last day of school and other things that I want to get into proper shape. That so far hasn't happened today instead I spent I think almost three hours talking with the lower school librarian, C, who is probably the best friend I've made at my school this year.

I have lots of things that I will end up writing but for now I'm going to share the next bit of a fic that keeps coming in spurts for me. The newest bit has happened to go now so I'm sharing it. This is Charles in Nolanverse Gotham with adiva_calandia's rule 63 Bryce Nolan with guest appearances by walksbyherself's OC Kite. I still don't know what the final shape of this story will be since I started writing it to see if I could make them work romantically. That part is happening just slowly and I'm sharing it as its one of those fics that I like sharing as it grows. Part one is here, part two is here and this is part three for now. Someday it will all come together.

( Gotham had an intensity to it that was more than what he was used to and he had yet to find out the reason for it, but he was searching. )

I just posted my first fic over on queer_fest which is one that clicked for me when I read the prompt and this FicFriday was busy. Life is full of various good things as I'm currently hanging out with the_croupier and got to go to Dawn Treader where I picked up many wonderful books. I've really needed this break.

Misfits and Lovers (3503 words) by FiKate
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: X-Men: First Class (2011)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Charles Xavier, Raven Darkholme, Erik Lehnsherr, Hank McCoy, Moira MacTaggert
Additional Tags: Bisexuality, Bisexual Character, Community: queer_fest, Prompt Fic, Backstory, Siblings, References to Homophobia
Summary:

Written for Queer Fest 2013 and the prompt: X-Men: First Class, Charles Xavier(/Erik Lehnsherr), Erik is the first person Charles has ever been completely honest with. Though Raven may have known about his telepathy, she didn't know he was queer.

Told from Charles and Raven's points of view as they navigate this new aspect of their relationship. Sexual tension between Charles and Erik is present but not acted upon. References to period fears of being queer in the 1950s and 1960s.

Title from The Wallflowers' song Misfits and Lovers.

For FicFriday, I wrote a few fics on this journal and then was very busy on Twitter.

( Twitter Fics )

Tonight was a night of really good television. I watched the first hour and fifteen minutes of Elementary before switching over to Hannibal. I need to marathon both shows because I've barely seen any Elementary but this episode made me want to watch it all. With Hannibal, I started late with it but it completely caught me. I ended up writing a fic inspired by Hannibal because I needed to read Will Graham and Charles meeting so wrote it myself.

Not your stray (470 words) by FiKate
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Hannibal (TV), X-Men (Movieverse)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Will's dogs, Will Graham, Charles Xavier
Additional Tags: Psychic Abilities, Secrets, Crossover, Empathy, Identity
Summary:

What if Charles Xavier offered to help Will Graham deal with his empathy? Will doesn't appreciate the offer and Charles' presumption. A brief meeting outside of Will's house as the dogs look on.

Set at some point between X2 and X3 and after the first episode of Hannibal. No spoilers for either canon but hints of psychic distress from both men.

So anyone willing to beta my queer fest fic of 3200 words of Charles and Raven dealing with him being bi?

Its pretty rough but I think its all there and there's no rush. My posting date isn't until later in the month.

Also Kevin Kline's Pirates of Penzance is on TV, I need to get the DVD version of this movie as my VHS is useless now. This movie is such a weird part of my childhood. I saw that awful movie The Pirate Movie on TV and had good thoughts about it and at the video store saw this one on sale and bought it. I then completely fell in love with it though thought the last song must have been created by the film as it was so out there. It wasn't until I took a course in college where we studied 19th century literature in which we read Gilbert and Sullivan that I learned that song was canon. It made me love the movie even more and how it just embraced the crackiness of Gilbert and Sullivan. Its been far too long since I played the Pirate King but I'm going to see if I can get around to having him take a bartending shift or something in the near future.