This is my life

Day 10: Pick something from the list of prompts created on day 3. My choice: What is the greatest distance you have traveled for any fandom reason?

I traveled almost 4000 miles to London for the Return of the King premiere.

and follow-up to the bonus question: Have you done that trip (from the previous question) more than once? If so, how many times have you made it?

Not that particular trip, but I have definitely traveled many miles for many fandoms and fannish reasons. I went out to California for my Buffy buds. I drove down to Chicago to meet some LOTR folks (that's not a huge trip, I literally did that a couple months ago to see a movie Wang Yibo was in (and intend on doing it again, should his next movie come to Chicago)). I drove to Baltimore multiple times to meet up with other LOTR folks. I drove all over the East Coast to follow 30 Seconds to Mars on tour. I'm sure there are more but that's enough for now.

The June Something prompts!

Day 8: Tell me something about the last fandom thing you wrote. Or the last thing you read. Or the last thing you recced. Or all of them.

Oooooh, yes, thank you, I think I will!

Last fandom thing I wrote was about 1/3 of a fic for AUgust with the prompt sightless. I'm pretty far behind in the making of stuff for this, but I'm hoping to do at least some of them to shake stuff loose. This story (as most of my stories are) are WangXian, CQL-flavored MDZS. Not sure where I was going with it - potentially the porn route? But it turned angsty, so who knows where it'll end up.

I literally JUST finished a Thief!LWJ AU that was MASTERFUL and I immediately recced it to two people, so it is my answer for the second and third parts. I liked it so much I intend to podfic it as soon as I am not completely wrung out from work. :) :) :)

all the problems we could solve (19976 words) by Stratisphyre
Chapters: 3/3
Fandom: 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV), 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Jiāng Chéng | Jiāng Wǎnyín & Jiāng Yànlí & Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Lán Huàn | Lán Xīchén & Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī
Characters: Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī, Jiāng Chéng | Jiāng Wǎnyín, Lán Huàn | Lán Xīchén, Jiāng Yànlí, Luó "Mián Mián" Qīngyáng, Yú Zǐyuān, Madam Lán (Módào Zǔshī)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern, Getting Together, somewhat non-linear, Fluff and Humour and Violence, Meet-Cute, Identity Porn, Alternate Universe - Thieves, a bit of a leverage vibe
Summary: The most important thing Lan Wangji ever stole was roughly the equivalent to twenty dollars USD.

The second most important thing Lan Wangji ever stole was Wei Ying’s heart.

The June Something prompts!

Day 6: Who was the first hero you wanted to be saved by? And from what would you need rescuing?
Bonus: Who's a hero you could save?

... Super interesting question. I never, even when I was small, imagined myself being saved by a hero. Is that a typical fantasy? I've literally never had it. I definitely made myself the love interest of the hero, but that was never done in a way that would require them to rescue me.

I definitely did rescue my heroes from danger on occasion, though. :D :D :D

My first fandom was Star Wars, I was gonna marry Luke Skywalker. Basically I was just another kid like him that basically went through the same stuff. I was weirded out when I found out Leia was his sister because basically that's what it felt like the way I sort of wrangled the plot around my character.

Next was Lord of the Rings (the books, not the movies) and I was gonna marry Aragorn by being Legolas's little sister elf. When I finally found out about Arwen (in what, the appendices or something? Like she's not even mentioned until the end!), I was super put out.

Nowadays instead of writing myself as a hero or the romantic interest thereof, I tend to write myself as emotional support for the characters I love. I'm the supportive auntie that helps them out, the clever shopkeeper, something like that. Funny how things change. :)

The June Something list of fun.

Day 4: What's your most treasured piece of fandom merch?
Bonus: What's your most treasured fandom freebie?
Alt Bonus: What's your most expensive piece of fandom merch?

Huhhhhhh.... There are only a few things really dear to me. My Wayward Sisters sweatshirt, for one. A few WangXian prints. The pins all over my bag.

Honestly I don't think I have a freebie? Not one that I've hung onto anyway. And my most expensive has got to be one of the many sweatshirts I've bought supporting various fandoms. They're also the most practical because I wear them all the time.

Here is this year's post!

And as I am terrible at regular posting, as we all know, I am going to attempt to do this but no promises! Especially since go-live is on June 26th and I expect to be running around like a chicken with my head cut off for the next two to three weeks.

Let's get on with it! Today's question is: What show or movie original cast would you like to see reunite for an update - where the intervening time has passed and we're getting a view of where they are now along with glimpses on how they got there?

Boy oh boy this is tough. My go to is generally Leverage, but they did actually do this themselves, so that's off the table. My next thought was a show that was thoroughly satisfying when it ended, so: The Good Place. But honestly, the end of that show was pretty much perfect? So I don't think that would work either.

My current fandoms are current, so I'm already reading all of the "what happened after?" fics, and the cast hasn't been separated long enough to have a big impact. That said, I would *love* to see The Untamed reunion at the 20 year mark or so. I love all those goobers and would like to see them together again.

Next up is old shows. Are there old shows I'd like to see where they might go with a current cast? Nothing is coming to mind. Supernatural JUST ended lol, don't need that. SGA? I guess. I'm not really invested anymore. :(

The Losers might be good. I love all those guys and it was set just before Chris Evans became Cap so could be some interesting stuff there. I want the sequel that was promised, damn it.

This is super hard for me, why is that? All right - college/high school shows. Buffy, maybe? Considering what the actors are doing these days, could be fun. Unfortunately James Marsters and David Boreanaz have definitely aged, so that would take some explaining. X Files? They did a reunion for that and I think it was disappointing (I don't honestly remember).

What this is telling me is that I truly prefer fic for this sort of thing so I can imagine it for myself, lol.

Day 19: What is something that you associate with a character in fandom, but aren't sure if it's canon or fandom?

Oh, so I generally am extremely confident about whether something is fanon or canon – to the point where I may be wrong, but I'm not hesitant about it. I'm just SURE it's the answer. (I of course admit my mistake when I'm shown or discover I am wrong, but until then I am 100% positive I am right.)

For an example, I was doing a cold read and there was something about one of the characters cooking, and I made an observation that people always had that character cooking, but it was a bit weird? Because he was like, the second son of a sect leader, it'd be a bit similar to royalty, wouldn't it, why would he know how to cook? And I just assumed it was fanon. And then someone screencapped the bit in the book where that character cooks for me, and I was like, okie dokie then, I was 100% positive that was fanon, but now I know that it's canon, so I'm 100% positive about that. *shrug*

Day 17: Do you prefer art, fic, or vids? Why? Bonus: If someone was to give you a fandom gift, what format would it be?

I like ALL of the things, including podfic. And meta. And custom pops and gifsets and WHATEVER. Like, fandom creativity is absolutely the best fucking thing about fandom. It is THE BEST. I love ALL the things, and love every type of fanwork gift I have ever gotten because they are the product of someone's love for fandom and someone's love for me, and that is pretty fucking great.

Day 15: What fandom pairing took you over like Venom took over Eddie?

Fucking BJYX. Like, it's really tough to come out of The Untamed/CQL/MDZS without being a WangXian stan, but BJYX is just. Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo individually are just SO GREAT. And their interactions on set are just fucking AMAZING and they just continue to be truly wonderful people and if you buy into the tinhat stuff, they continue to be awesome at and with each other. And even if you don't buy the tinhat stuff, like, they clearly, clearly enjoyed each other during their time together and are individually wonderful, so. It's really a lot of fun.

Day 13: Squicks - What are some things that squick you in fandom - not necessarily "icky", though it can be. From anything involving blood, to bad grammar.

I have had to give up on one of the things that used to annoy me because I NOW DO IT AND CANNOT HELP IT. Homophones. Just. I used to be SUCH a hardass about there/their/they're and now I find WORK EMAILS where I got it wrong, and there are three replies in and my mistake is saved for posterity and I want to murder things.

Other than that, not much? Mpreg squicks me. I don't like pregnancy fics anyway, and mpreg is just like, but no, why. NOT FOR ME. I don't love A/B/O but it's not as strong as a squick. I just don't like it because I feel like the whole concept of secondary gender is bizarre and also generally done nonsensically, and there's so many worldbuilding things that would need to be thought through that it's like. UGH. SO MUCH WORK. And it's never done because basically most folks who like A/B/O just want knotting porn and I'm just… not interested in that.

Music can be a squick. Music is so rarely done correctly that I honestly just flinch when I see even trusted authors try to write a classical music AU. I've tried to offer my services but the only time I tried, basically I shredded the entire premise of the person's fic because professional symphonies don't work like that and just. UGH. I can't handle it. The Scheherezhad Job episode of LEVERAGE makes me cringe. I cannot stand it.

Similarly, medical things can be annoying, but they're not squick level. I can get past them if it's just a small mistake (like when House, M.D. listed a bunch of blood tests and put a fucking FECAL test in there), but when the whole premise is medical and clearly the person doesn't know anything about hospitals/med school/medical profession that will drive me batty.

Day 11: What would make you leave a fandom, or prevent you from getting into it in the first place?

Pretty much the canon gets me into and out of most fandoms? Or well. The canon gets me in and a new canon makes the old fandom fall away. Or boredom. The only fandom I remember leaving before I had a new one was Stargate: Atlantis. I just… ran out of interest in the stories I was telling, so... I just stopped. And didn't find The Losers for a couple of years, which was a long, uncomfortable slog. I would prefer NOT to ever be between fandoms ever again.

I would love to say that racism or misogyny or queerbaiting or other bigoted, hateful behavior would get me out, but it's been proven with Supernatural that it won't. So I just write stuff to mitigate it, and ignore the shitty parts of canon and fandom.

Those things will make me cooler toward things that aren't my fandom but that I enjoy. Harry Potter, for example, I have noticeably cooled on. I was never in the fandom, but I read stuff, I bought stuff, I saw the movies. I stopped all of that after Jo came out as a TERF. But I do not have any bad feelings about fans still in that fandom. She created something that touched a lot of people, and fans and fandom made it SO MUCH BETTER. And they can grieve and commiserate together about it. There's nothing wrong with that.

Day 9: Drop the cast of a fandom you follow into a reality tv show - who/what/why?

It's tempting to do the C drama on this one because I've watched so much reality TV with them I could probably write you scenes from it. Wang Yibo on Street Dance of China 3, or Day Day Up, Xiao Zhan with XFIRE, and The Untamed Boys, who were just all adorable.

But putting them on, say, Top Chef or Project Runway, or Nailed It! Would be fucking hilarious. Project Runway, I think, because none of them sew, that I know of. Xiao Zhan cooks, and there are probably others who do, so Top Chef would be less fun. I don't have a lot of thoughts about them except that it would be fun to watch them be terrible at making stuff a la Nailed It.

Day 6: What's a fandom that you wish had a bigger following?

I don't know. I… hm. I mean, I've been in smallish fandoms, but they've always been just the right size for what I want, so???? I mean, being in a megafandom that produces tons of content is nice but it's also overwhelming. I will never be able to keep up with everything tied to MDZS/CQL, and I despair about that a little bit.

But I never run out of stuff to read or look at. :)

On the other hand, The Losers was pretty small, but the talent was massive, and when we wanted more content, we went out and made it. A little enthusiasm goes a long way.

I'm sure there probably will be a tiny fandom I get invested deeply in at some point, but so far, even the teeniest fandoms seem to either a) have exactly the story I need to be satisfied or b) inspire me to write the fic that I need to be satisfied, and then they have served their purpose and I move on. *shrug* I think every size fandom is wonderful.

Day 4: What are the origins of your penname/username?

Short one today. Kisa Hawklin was my very first D&D character. She started as a 7th level human bard and I played her up to level 30, and I still miss her from time to time. I like my current D&D groups, but that was my first, and my longest, and all the characters were so great.