Thoughts on the Journey

I haven't updated in a bit since life has been busy but good. Valentine's week, my parents came to visit and we had a wonderful time including going to an auto museum in Brookline in this castlelike carriage house. And while they were here, my Dad got to work fixing a table that was broken in a move and today I did the last steps and I'm hanging more art on the walls.

The week before that I had two teeth taken out that were becoming painful and my dentist decided that there wasn't enough left of either one to try and save them with root canals. My mouth does feel better but I'm still getting used to having the empty spots to chew around.

Then after my parents left I had a busy time at work with three days of work in a row including working during a pokemon thing. That led me to actually connecting with Pokemon Go players in my new neighborhood. I actually went raiding with real people this past Wednesday night which was wonderful. I've been missing that kind of connection. Also apologies to everyone in the area who I meant to hang out with, why is it so hard to schedule time to just be with friends?

A lot of this week was about home stuff, I discovered that my gas meter is hidden behind many pipes and can't easily be changed. Then when I was headed to work yesterday morning, my car didn't start. It ended up needing a new starter, AAA was great and I found a local service place. They had some brochures for local art places and I'm thinking about looking into maybe taking some classes.

In terms of watching things, one of my favorite Youtuber groups are coming to PaxEast for a live D&D game on Saturday, so I went ahead and bought my ticket. First con in so very long, let me know if you're going to be there. I also binged the second season of Vox Machina and finally got into watching compilations of the actual games. I came to that fandom the other way around but so much goodness. And it even coincided with my D&D having a full session with a new player who kicked ass and gave us a wonderful win.

And I just saw a job opening for a part-time desk position at my work and its internal and I'm going to apply for it. Since my perfect job would be half processing and the other half desk things, so that feels good. The weather is being snowy and slushy but I'm feeling hopeful.

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.

I can't believe that Alan Rickman's dead. I've been traveling all day so only learned about it when I was on the train to NYC. He's an actor who's been in so many movies I adore and ones I don't, but he was always worth watching. Also I found out that the actor who voiced Robin Hood in Disney is dead as well from sdelmonte and that's awful, his voice was always my Robin Hood.

For the Snowflake Challenge, the prompt for the 14th actually ties into some fics that I want to rec.

Day 14

In your own space, share your love for something fannish: a trope, cliché, kink, motif, theme, format, or fandom.

I think my favorite trope, the kind that will pull me deeper into a fandom is if the characters feel messy and real. I have a weakness for characters figuring out what they can do and who they are and all the bumps along the way. I think the best example of this for me is Sameth from The Abhorsen Chronciles, his perception of himself feels real and while the situation is extraordinary, his reactions feel real. If you look at my roleplaying roster on my profile or the types of fics I tend to write, they tend to be all about someone making sense and making mistakes and finding what they can do.

Day 13
In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you did not create. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it.

Love and Marriage (3387 words) by shewhoguards
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Chronicles of Chrestomanci - Diana Wynne Jones
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Christopher Chant/Millie
Characters: Christopher Chant, Millie | Millie Chant
Additional Tags: Arguments, Happy Ending, marriage is hard, Newly weds
Summary:

Romantic it might be, but there was a limit to how much you could smile at each other, how many pet names you could find for each other and how many times people could pointedly leave you alone together before it all got a bit.. dull really. And there was a feeling as though that status had to be maintained, as though the first person to break it by speaking a cross word or even voicing a minor annoyance might be breaking something precious.

I adore Diana Wynne Jones' books because of how she writes messy people and situations. This fic with Christopher and Millie getting married and having their first fight feels like a continuation of the books. Its sweet, sad and funny,

A Noble Heart (1417 words) by Rhiannon87
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: October Daye Series - Seanan McGuire
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Dean Lorden/Quentin Sollys
Characters: Quentin Sollys, Dean Lorden
Summary:

Quentin has a confession to make. Dean has no shortage of questions. Set sometime between Chimes at Midnight and A Red-Rose Chain.

This was my Yuletide gift and I've lost count of how often I've reread it. The author captures all that I love about McGuire's writing, the great world and the people. Quentin is one of my favorite characters in the series and I RP him in Milliways as I'm fascinated by his journey. This fic fills in some missing pieces and complements the world.

Like Butter on Toast (7667 words) by SoundandColor
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Hugh Collins/Dorothy "Dot" Williams
Characters: Hugh Collins, Dorothy "Dot" Williams, Tobias Butler, Phryne Fisher, Jack Robinson
Additional Tags: Established Relationship, Season/Series 03, Light Bondage, Canon Compliant, First Time, Sharing a Bed, Rope Bondage, Yuleporn
Summary:

“If I could find someone who looked at me the way your copper looked at you,” Nell says, staring into the bottom of her glass and seeing things Dot isn’t sure she wants to know about, “I wouldn't be standing here waiting. I’d go and get him and I wouldn’t let him go.”

Or, How Dot Decides It's Time to Bring Hugh Home.

Its really hard to pick only three fics but I think this one needs more love. Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries is a show where I worry for all of them and this fic is Hugh and Dot trying to sort themselves out. I love how you can see the various found families and orbits of Dot, Hugh and everyone else. That intertwining and care that helps them find their way to happiness.

I hope other people enjoy these fics as they make me happy.

My week is off to a good start, I have plans for my interview tomorrow and am about to buy some new luggage for my trip at the end of the month. Think good thoughts for me tomorrow at 1 pm. Today's question for snowflake_challenge is one that I find interesting.

Day 5

In your own space, talk about your fannish origin story. How did you come to fandom, why did you choose your fannish name, do you have more than one secret identity?

Fandom's always been there for me even though I didn't truly understand what it was that I was connecting to until college.

As a little girl, I fell in love with Paul Creswick's Robin Hood, the N.C. Wyeth illustrations pulled me into a different world. Robin Hood is still that touchstone story for me, I get annoyed at retellings I don't like, but love talking about what works and what doesn't. At the same time and earlier, I was reading through and having read to me the Narnia books. There was a day camp I went to where a part of every day was being read to. This wonderful man named King who had a deep voice and a beard read the Narnia books, that was where I learned the love of sharing books with others. Also at this same time, I was watching Star Trek: The Next Generation, which combined with Robin Hood inspired my first works of fanfic. Will Scarlett ending up on the Enterprise and being friends with Wesley Crusher through weird magic. I used to write in the back of my school notebooks, have the notebook open, flip to the back and write stories there then turn to the notes when I needed to take them. In a box, I still have these old school notebooks and later all the journals people gave me full of words.

At the age of twelve, I went to this wonderful summer program, Longacre where another world of interacting and creating opened up to me through playing Dungeons & Dragons. My first character and still the only one I've ever played in D&D was a half-elf bard and I made up a backstory for her that my GM liked so much, she started at level 5. That GM taught me that its possible to step into a world with words and that dice and all are beside the point, he also lent me R.A. Salvatore books to show me how rich the D&D world was. I was also taking theater classes and thinking about the importance of background, how even if you don't hear the details, every character has their backstory.

By the time I started doing LARPing and entered the World of Darkness, the idea of being able to write a history for my character was natural. The World of Darkness showed me a wider way of interacting as there were rulebooks, novels, pins, all this wonderful stuff that came along with this world. Then the internet was there and I could see other fans, I once even tried RPing in the offical Star Trek chatroom like set ups.

In college, I found Harry Potter and then an amazing friend showed me how to find fanfiction and I had that moment of oh, this is home. In the midst of writing papers, I would spend time on the Sugarquill while I ran my own Changeling: the Dreaming LARP and tabletop game. In my creative writing classes, I tried to slip the fantasy of Changeling: the Dreaming into my work. It only partly worked, Fangirl perfectly captured how some teachers don't get fantasy or fanfiction.

From that same friend after college, I was told about milliways_bar and learned that I could actually roleplay my favorite fandom characters. I began with Will Scarlett and now play ten characters. Milliways brought me friends who shared where they wrote and suddenly I was sharing my own fanfiction, first on my LJ, then later on Ao3 and participating in Yuletide, Narnia Fic Exchange, Ineedmyfics and ficathons.

My user name ceitfianna was created my sophomore year of college, my partner at the time had an LJ invite code. I thought it might be a good way to keep in touch while studying abroad in Greece. Ceit is the Scots Gaelic spelling for my first name, Kate, and one of the few languages I've found where I can find my name as it is. I'm a plain Kate, where its not short for anything. Fianna is the name of a mythic tribe of warriors in Ancient Ireland and a werewolf tribe from Werewolf: the Apocalypse. I honestly don't recall exactly why I decided to combine them, but its stuck and is how I'm known on LJ, DW and Twitter.

On Archive of our Own, my name FiKate is a reference to my AIM screenname which was the name of a character from a Werewolf: The Apocalypse game that only lasted one summer; Fiona. In Milliways, a huge amount of interaction happens in a chat room and since my screenname is Fiona, I was dubbed Fi. Yet there are Milliways' people who call me Kate and when I was creating my Archive of our Own name, I thought that I would combine them.

My Tumblr name on the other hand is something different as I didn't know how much it would connect to other areas of my life. Its atthelamppost as I'm currently feeling at a crossroads while I try to figure out a way to do what I love and be paid for it. Its inspired by Narnia, which is one of my oldest fandoms and one that I'm still a bit weird about. I haven't read The Last Battle, because when I was about eleven or twelve, I decided I didn't want the series to end. I'm 33 and still haven't read even though a little while ago, my father read through the entire series for the first time. Maybe I will someday. I've also considered getting a tattoo of the lamppost as an iconic image for me.

The last name I have online is for my librarian/professional blog, that I really need to update which is called nurturingstories. This is because I consider myself a storyteller and a good teacher and librarian is all about stories. We all have our own stories and children's stories need to be nurtured to allow them to grow.

An hour ago, I got back from helping my father and a good friend with an art opening at a place where they have studio and gallery space. The friend is a printmaker and my dad can show his wood sculpture in this new gallery that used to be a car garage. While I was there, I did some job hustling as in the morning I helped another friend with computer stuff. Any bit of money is useful and I know more about computers than many people in this area.

Also I've created a journal for Quentin, heatherandsteel and he has EPs up at Mixed Muses and Panfandomsandbox. At the moment I'm bringing him in from before The Winter Long and there shouldn't be any spoiler issues. His profile and everything are pretty empty as I want to test him out first. Open for ages.

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.

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. )

Today I started writing a story from a queer fest prompt because it got into my head about Charles and being bi. If you're looking for story ideas or a new place to write, go look at what's going on. They're open for new prompts until March 15th and stories aren't due until May and June. I've never written for them before but I went to look and the ideas started happening.

And another part of feeling like my creativity is active, I finally got Tiwa her icons back and she and a AU!Hogwarts' Will are in the sandboxes. I'd love some threads guys as I've missed playing these two.

Life is feeling good and a little odd. My monthly Sci-Fi Fantasy book club makes me incredibly happy even though I've yet to read the books for it. This week I did manage to buy the book but not read it. The people in the book club are creative, fascinating and remind me of being in crackchat, where the conversation bounces in strange ways. It ended up making me want to write more Charles as the book was Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End, so we discussed what was going on for people in the '50s and '60s. I ended up recommending Lilek's and stayed until about 10:30, I would have stayed later but I was tired and wanted some wine. I feel like I'm slowly creating a social life for myself here.

Work ended on Friday with a major bump as the school servers went down and suddenly there was no internet. One of the best compliments I've ever gotten for the job I do is how many kids stayed after school even with no internet. One kid used his phone as a tether for others, but overall, they were happy to just be in the library.

FicFriday ended up being partially here and also on Twitter again. Being on my journal works better for me as I'm working, but not everyone has the same issues. My dreamwidth fills are here.
( Twitter writing )

Today I had a snow day, which was wonderful. I was able to rest though I woke up in the middle of the night and twice during the day, so it wasn't the best rest. My back is hurting and I'm going to try and get a massage within the next few weekends. I also need to take care of my taxes soon, March seems to be going to be a busy month.

I've finally finished some writing and had some bursts of inspiration. Yesterday's Daily Entertainment was a prompt one and I wrote a lot of fics over here. Some of these might end up on Archive of our Own, I just have to figure out which ones are complete enough, which means some might get more.

The main reason that I'm writing this entry though is that I have finally finished a fix-it for Becoming Jane that I started in June 2011. Happy belated birthday dynastessa, here are Jane and Tom having a happy ending and one I think we could RP.

Too Deep to Wash Away (2006 words) by FiKate
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Becoming Jane (2007)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jane Austen/Tom Lefroy
Characters: Jane Austen, Tom Lefroy, Henry Austen, Cassandra Austen, Mrs. Hudson, Reverend Austen, Judge Langlois
Additional Tags: Fix-It, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Siblings, Family, Love, Happy Ending, Writing
Summary:

In this story, I have done my best to give Jane Austen and Tom Lefroy a happy ending within the confines of their world. They both try to proceed with their lives but luck changes and their families try to help them be happy.

Henry married and Tom received a letter but no invitation which wasn’t a surprise. Within that letter, Henry wrote a line that struck Tom more than he thought words could do as he said; My sisters are as ever themselves though more quietly. I will not speak much of them but her words will appear, my friend.

This is also a gift to Jen who's words inspire me.

I have really needed a vacation though my worries keep creeping in. Last night I dreamed that I was sort of like Lou from The Young Riders but also mixed up in a performance for something. There was lots of rushing about and trying to get things done, but I have been sleeping a lot.

Today I got out of the house to spend some time at a cafe and do some shopping, I love my friend but cabin fever can creep up on me quickly. In some nice news, through my work email, there are these really nice emails from other people there that remind me that I am valued and seen. Its just not by those in charge, but I am.

Now I don't usually post snippets but my writing at this point seems to be in bursts. Things get started and go so far then stop and start on me. Its just how I am now with life, I don't feel like I've figured out how to live this life I currently have.

This is a complete part of something that I hope will be bigger, but I want to share it with those who inspired it. Now over in panfandomsandbox, adiva_calandia plays this rule 63 Nolanverse Batman, Bryce Wayne who is amazing. She and Charles have this complicated, prickly and frankly weird relationship that I love and need to have at least one fic where they sleep with each other. So I decided to start a fic with that in mind, but it took a sharp right turn as soon as I started.

I will write them together just once, they are not meant for romance but I can see them both hurting and needing. This is a long way of saying that I wrote something with the two of them and a guest appearance by walksbyherself's Kite that I really want to share. I think this will end up having more, it feels like a story of snapshots while other fic will come along.

The current title is from The Wallflowers new album and feels far too apt for them.
( Love is a country best crossed when you're young. )