a conspiracy of cartographers

Hi, anyone newly subscribed! Say hi if you desire :D

I'm honestly delighted that I have had to do skip=60 to read back through what everyone has written since the last time I checked. Also, there seems to be an active Thor/Loki DW comm now? so all my dreams are coming true?? (Fun fact, I still think of Harry Potter and Doctor Who as my longest-running fandoms, because when you're a young teenager everything feels like it takes forever but I was only truly immersed in HP fandom for about four years, and similarly everything feels very high-commitment when you write 50k about something two summers running, but for all that I was also only really immersed in Who fandom for about three years. Meanwhile: started having Thor feelings the summer the first movie came out, here we are seven years later and not even how thoroughly I don't care about Infinity War can actually quell my feelings.) In any event, I am sad that tumblr is tanking in the sense that I'm going to miss the easy doses of good fanart, or gifsets if I want something low-maintenance but still fannish. And on the other hand, journaling is 1000% my social fandom interaction of choice and I am pretty overjoyed DW has life in it again.

Fannishly I am:

- over 1000 words on my Yuletide but not remotely near done with it; I signed up before I got a new job that is less part-time this month than I expected, but I have enough of my Yuletide done that I think I can manage without defaulting

- reading through my two Shame Shelves, as I have dubbed the bottom two shelves of my book case, wherein live all the books I still need to read; I finally felt like I was in an emotional place from which I could securely finish NK Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy, and yesterday I finished The Stone Sky, which was so good, SO GOOD, and when I was done I gently set it down next to me and sobbed into my hands for several minutes -- highly recommended if you're prepared for how unflinchingly brutal it is

- admitting to myself that, given the number of times I've loopingly rewatched both with thewrongkindofpc, I am no longer just casually watching either Buzzfeed Unsolved or Worth It; the three separate fics I appear to be writing might also be a clue that this is an actual fandom of mine now. I have never had an rpf fandom before! how does one even cope with these real humans constantly generating new canon!! (one presumably copes with the fourth wall by locking all the fic the fuck down or getting a sock for it.)

- sloooooowly writing the Will/Hannibal fic of my heart; every scene takes a billion years because Will Graham is extremely difficult to write accurately, but I really love what I have so far, especially how deeply spot-on bizarre I have managed to make the dialogue

Anyway how are YOUR Yuletide fics going?

GOOD MORNING, I HAVE SEEN RAGNAROK, and I have some thoughts. ( Here follows, uh, 2k of thoughts. Or, as I said somewhere in this reaction post: THIS IS A FUN ACTION FLICK AND I HAVE TOO MANY EMOTIONS. )

+ THE FIC DRAFT IS DONE. It clocks in at 105k (...roughly 12k of which are porn), and it's off with Olivia right now, being beta'd. I feel really bizarre about this fic! I mean, I woke up today feeling really light and happy and excited because it's done, or done enough that I can actually think about anything else ever again, but -- among other things I've made myself emotionally compromised about Thor for life, so Thor 2 next week is going to be a difficulty. Amiel and I are going to the midnight premiere with a flask of mead, of course; and the funny thing is that, because we've only just made our fic deadline, if we post one a day starting Thursday it'll also be our fic-is-done-being-posted celebration. I really like the symmetry of that, and I also really like that it means this stupid fic is going to be like a bizarre week-long advent calendar countdown to Thor 2.

+ I have had so much wear out of my Thor dress lately! Obviously I wore it to NYCC, but I also wore it to a Halloween party Friday night and then to a come-dressed-in-your-costumes birthday party bowling session on Sunday. (Among the people bowling we had Kirk, Spock, Thor, Loki, and Martian Manhunter. Kirk and Spock took turns and were Team Enterprise; Thor and Loki were not a team. I did spectacularly well in the first game and spectacularly badly in the second, but in my defense there had been pizza and beer by then.) I am also working on Halloween, so ... gonna be barista!Thor. Looking forward to this kind of a lot.

- I got so excited about finishing the draft and having any free time again that I decided to get some finances in order and register for direct pay things! Then nothing would work in Chrome so I had to use Firefox, and one site worked after that but another refused to let me copy-paste anything into the email field, which ... is unfortunate, since I'm still doing ctrl+v every time I want to type the letter m. I'm putting this particular adulting shit on the backburner until I get a new laptop, but the latest in the ongoing laptop saga is that I got an email yesterday saying, sorry, your delivery has been delayed, we apologize for the inconvenience. At least this time they're not ... rescinding the product entirely? But this is fucking ridiculous.

+ On the other hand I finished the draft and I have any free time again! I also have very little work this week, which means I'm going to clear out the slush and catch up on tumblr and play lots of Dragon Age II and, assuming poor Housemate A actually gets home before midnight, make her play tons of Lego Marvel with me (seriously it is the BEST GAME EVER, like, Reed Richards literally turns into a giant tool, and HULK SMASH EVERYTHING, and the cut scenes with Doom and Loki are amazing). And I have plenty of time to do edits before posting, too! This week should be really pleasant.

+ FIC FIC FIC

A list of things that are currently making me really happy:

+ Housemate A continues phenomenal. She is a degree of tidy that makes me really happy -- we had a cleaning session with blasting music the other day -- and she brought home the most adorable geeky posters from Otakon. She also, of all horrors, bought an Xbox this weekend, as well as Dragon Age: Origins, so ... that's what we've been doing. A is doing a round as a city elf rogue, Polaris as a casteless dwarf rogue, and I have discovered that I have a really bad attention span for video games, so I am [a] a human mage (named Loki because fuck you of course I'm playing as Loki, GONNA BE A BLOOD MAGE JUST TRY TO STOP ME) and [b] a forest elf rogue and nothing else yet but I really also want to play a dwarf warrior maybe? Comparative gameplay!! Curious about how soon I will burn out and wander off, but so far it is a delight.

+ I finished The King of Attolia! I don't know if I feel fannish about the Queen's Thief books? although obviously I'd be happy to be talked into feeling fannish about them. I do know that somewhere in the third book Gen tipped over from "someone I enjoy reading about" to "someone I will clutch metaphorically to me screeching about how great they are" because I just ... am so easy for people who are heartclutchingly good at what they do while not liking themselves nor what they need to do very much, so sdkldsfjdfs. I suppose I should read A Conspiracy of Kings next, but, well, we've been mainlining Hornblower and I keep on having all these Thor/Loki feelings and then wishing astolat had written more fic, so OBVIOUSLY the solution is to reread His Majesty's Dragon. (I tapped out of those books at the beginning of Empire of Ivory last time for reasons of having a Thing about plagues, and specifically not wanting to read about them, but I think I'm going to give it another go.)

+ Work is SO GREAT, especially now that my boss has basically scheduled me opposite shifts as Difficult Coworker (because my boss: also really great). I don't have anything more substantial than that, just, I'm really enjoying my ridiculous life being a barista at an indie bookstore. Also I may have discovered that my ability to make good caffeinated drinks means I've become good at making mixed alcoholic drinks as well, although obviously this bears further investigation.

+ At the end of the month my cousin is getting married! I'm excited to see my family, especially my parents and my grandma, and my cousin's fiance is excellent, and ahhh what am I going to wear, I haven't figured this out at all! My dad told me to spike my hair (and to ... wear a collar? I think he's confusing queers with punks; that or he knows something about my personal life that I have never ever told him) and generally dyke it up, because he is a delightful human sometimes. Eh, I will figure it out.

+ So many delightful things are happening this fall!! Dessa is here in September, and Vienna Teng is here in October, and excellent boss is giving me off those closing/following opening shifts so I can 100% make those concerts. She is also giving me off October 10-12th, which means I can [a] GO TO THE NIGHT VALE LIVE SHOW (oliviacirce: the best fucking wingman ever, with tickets for us both) and [b] go to Friday New York ComicCon if I fancy. Still debating whether it's worth $50, but if you are going to be at NYCC, let me know! Having people to hang out with would greatly up my incentive to go.

+ I ... may have also been given off the close/open of November 7/8th for reasons of midnight Thor 2. HELL YES THIS GETS ITS OWN BULLET POINT. Okay, also in this bullet point I will say that my fic is trucking along nicely and I loooove it. Gonna be done in plenty of time for people to read it before Thor 2 Josses the hell out of it.

This list brought to you by, oh my god, this isn't even a list of things I'm being determinedly cheerful about, this is just genuinely how happy and excited about life I am today. :DDD

It is before noon and I have already done all the grocery shopping and paid rent! I am well pleased, and also cradling a cup of tea so I don't end up faceplanting into the keyboard. I've been up for ages because I crashed at Amiel's after contra last night, and oh my god, contra continues absolutely amazing. I am pleasantly sore today, and maybe I should try to properly take up yoga so I don't end up stiff and tottery over the weekend.

Mostly I'm just absurdly happy: contra, and this weekend at the harbor there's some kind of exhibition of tall ships, and on the 4th Polaris and I are planning to watch Independence Day and 1776, as you do when you want the weirdest double feature, and to have a cookout in the back yard (where we will presumably meet some of the neighbors, because I doubt we're the only ones with this idea). And in case I haven't mentioned it lately, I love my housemates so much, see: aforementioned 4th of July plans, and the bit where when I got home today I found that K had left me the most adorable and terrifying gift ever. We're in season four of Babylon 5, and in ... celebration, or possibly to freak me out, K made a plushie Drakh Keeper, a tentacley alien neural parasite. It is SO CUTE, and buttons around one's neck! I plan to wear it like a scarf, and if I misbehave I will claim that the Drakh made me do it.

In other news, I just happily sailed through Runemarks by Joanne Harris, the basic premise of which is that Ragnarok happened five hundred years ago, Asgard fell, the gods are dead or imprisoned in various realms of the World Below, magic has been outlawed, and a dystopic Order reigns, so of course our fourteen-year-old magical heroine has to go on a quest to renew the world, and ... basically has a fantastic road trip with Loki. I JUST LOVE IT SO MUCH. It occurs to me that I love most iterations of Loki not because he's played by Tom Hiddleston (because ... mostly he isn't, though I think in this he was) but because he is tricksy and saves the world a lot while loudly telling everyone that he's just in it for himself. (I may have imprinted on Howl from Howl's Moving Castle at an impressionable age.)

I also think I want to make a list of Books That Do Fun Interesting Things With Norse Mythology, but at the moment the list is limited to Runemarks, DWJ's Eight Days of Luke, and Gaiman's Odd and the Frost Giants. (American Gods doesn't make this cut cos it's about Norse mythology a bit but it's also about a hundred other things.) I am very much up for recommendations! Lots of Loki a bonus but not specifically required.

It is pouring rain, which is not the midwinter snow I always desire but is still comfy sweater weather, and I have painted my nails gold, just cos. Today I think is a day to curl up and talk about fandom things!

i. HOBBIT TRAILER. I love everything about it! I love all the dwarves (distinctive enough that I have tried to resolve to learn which is which by the time the film comes out, although I'm fairly sure that as long as I can keep track of Thorin, Fili, Kili, Balin, and Bombur, I'll have my important bases covered). I love the clear determination to tell the dominoed events that culminate in Lord of the Rings, because that's apparently everything I've ever wanted from an expansion of the Hobbit; WHITE COUNCIL, PLZ. And I love Bilbo so, so much. I loved him more than anything when I was four, and I don't think I've ever managed to stop. This time next year I'm going to be a delighted sobbing mess of Hobbit emotions, I suspect.

ii. Four new Sherlock trailers, while we're on the subject of Martin Freeman In Everything. Despite having felt tetchy with Sherlock ever since Blind Banker was made of fail, I am quite willing to be excited. Mostly because ( cut for spoilery trailer things. )

iii. End of the year fandom meme! ( My ability to remember what fandoms are from what years is terrible at the best of times, but I'll give it a go. )

And now LUNCH. Also, I will attempt to not be too amused at everyone's alarm over the latest LJ debacle. Come to the Dreamwidth side, guys, it's nice here and you don't even need an invite code right now.

Thor deleted scenes! My god, it's like they left in all the Earth shenanigans and decided that Asgard and its beautiful scenery and Frigga having any lines at all and Loki's face were all less important than the Earth scenes! I ... do see how some of it was cut for pacing, but damn, nearly every deleted scene was a thing of joy and beauty forever.

( More Loki scenes = WILD FLAILING. This is about half missing scene commentary and half me nattering on about character meta, because that's how I roll when I have new material for this film that I inexplicably have lots of feelings about. )

Brb, probably writing a billion more Loki fics. NOW WITH 100% MORE FRIGGA. And also additional Asgard sets!

+ The response I've already got to the Loki fic is making me clutch my face with glee. It is magical to be in an active fandom. (It is also magical to know there are lots of people who share my Loki FEELINGS.) Now I just have to convince myself that not everything needs a plot, and that it is okay if I write Sif/Darcy without apology. I also have to convince myself that I am capable of writing Tony Stark, but this may, in fact, be a lie.

+ Speaking of Starks, I have the first episode of Game of Thrones sitting on my computer. Taunting me. Daring me to watch it, even though I have an inner voice wailing that I shouldn't dare watch it without reading the books first. Shut up, little voice, you coped with True Blood, you can cope with this. (Oh HBO, why you gotta keep half-seducing me into watching bits of your shows.)

+ I cannot stop listening to the gay mutant disco love song from the First Class credits. It has become the soundtrack in my mind. I am having such a strange relationship with First Class fandom! Like, on the one hand Erik/Charles is my pairing type FOREVER, and I am so, so glad that it has suddenly become fandom's thing du jour. On the other hand, the more I think about the film the more issues I have with a bunch of its basic structures and assumptions, and navigating unknown fic is a minefield of avoiding Holocaust-related hurt/comfort or the assumption that Charles is actually a good and correct person, oh god how many times have I hit the back button. On the mutant (haha) third hand, a lot of excellent writers and people I know are doing so, so right by it, and so I keep reading fic, and feeling mildly bewildered, and listening to the gay mutant disco love song yet again.

+ I went to see Midnight in Paris yesterday. It is unutterably charming, you guys. I have a low tolerance for Woody Allen films, but this one was great. I originally went to see it on the promise of Tom Hiddleston as F. Scott Fitzgerald, and he was indeed pretty delightful (although oh god he had an American accent, cognitive dissonance, WHAT IS HAPPENING) but the best part was actually Ernest Hemingway, who had me basically rolling in my seat laughing. If you like jokes about 1920s writers, watch the hell out of this.

+ I seem to be rereading American Gods; this is great fun, because I get to clutch my face and cackle when it talks about Shadow's cellmate Low Key and his scarred smile, and also I keep going, "Oh, ODIN," when no one is in the room. But I think I should warn you all: don't read Neil Gaiman late at night. Just don't do it. I used to know this, but last night I foolishly forgot, and for my transgression I dreamed that I was Shadow and had to talk with Laura while she was a half-decayed corpse; I was pretty chill about this, but there was SCREAMING INSIDE, believe me. Why you gotta do this, brain? I would have taken Aziraphale and Crowley over this. I would've taken Loki over this! Oh well. In conclusion, Neil Gaiman, late nights, no. I imagine this applies even harder if the reading in question is Sandman.

+ ...I am really tempted to watch a trio of Xena episodes in which, wiki tells me, Xena is Odin's most feared Valkyrie, Gabrielle hangs out with Brunhilda, Xena helps Beowulf defeat Grendel and ends up married to Hrothgar, and then there is girlkissing. On the other hand, if I try to watch it I might actually start laughing too hard to see.

songofsongs: we are seeing loki tomorrow
aria: hahaha
aria: LOKI
aria: that is the actual name of the film
songofsongs: IT'S TRUE
songofsongs: we have a plan. it involves several different ways this is gonna play out
songofsongs: on the one hand, no one will be in the theatre because it is a tues and late in the running of the movie
songofsongs: in which case CONSTANT SCREEN-CALLING
aria: do you have anything planned?
songofsongs: not yet! but I want to!
aria: omg obvs you have to yell CONVENIENT ODINSLEEP
songofsongs: wanna yell something at convenient odin!sleep
songofsongs: ...
aria: slkfsjdfsjsdfjdfs
songofsongs: OH GOD
aria: WHAT ARE WE
songofsongs: EVERYTHING AWESOME

So this Loki fic that I'm writing. It is a little bit skipthedemon's fault, re: this thread, but it is mostly my fault, both for Loki being my character type to an absurd degree, and for the fact that I'm doing that thing, the thing where it is summer and I'm hiding indoors from the humidity and my mind latches onto this one thing I want to fix and story I want to tell and then WORDS, WORDS FOR WEEKS.

This is by way of saying that I've been writing this fic for two weeks now, and it's at 24,000 words. That's only half the daily output of the season projects, but it is more than enough of the daily output for NaNo, and also already 4000 words longer than anything else I've written barring the season projects. And it's not anywhere near done. I just -- god, I hope it comes in under 50,000 by a good margin?

Basically, what I'm saying is, HAVE A GIF THAT ILLUSTRATES WHAT MY LIFE IS LIKE RIGHT NOW.



I am so sorry I seem to have gone completely mad. Again.