Random Thoughts

(For a generally organized person in real life, I am apparently a very disorganized Dreamwidth poster. ^^ Still planning to continue with the two other serial memes I’ve already started… eventually… and in some order, but for the moment this shiny caught my eye via solo andunrelaxing , so. Douzo! : )


Slow burn OR love at first sight: Slow burn, for sure. I can maybe be interested in love at first sight if, like, one character falls in love at first sight and the other takes ten years to notice, but… that’s really a slow burn, isn’t it. : ) Basically, for me, once they’re both in love and they know it, unless there’s some other major obstacle to them being together (e.g. one of them is married, or breaks it off because being gay will ruin their careers, or whatever), the story is kind of over.

Fake dating OR secret dating: Fake dating. Secret dating implies that the relationship is internally stable and the problem is just a matter of other people knowing about it, which… doesn’t really interest me. Fake dating implies that everyone else thinking they’re together is no problem, and the thing that’s likely to become a problem is one or the other of them catching actual feelings, which is where my interest lies.

Enemies to lovers OR best friends to lovers: Enemies to lovers. : ) I should clarify that I mean this more in the You’ve Got Mail sense, where for whatever reason two people just don’t like each other or are across purposes, and then they grudgingly come to realize they’re attracted to each other. I’m not into villain pairings or people falling in love with people who are actually bad. Best friends to lovers on the other hand… tbh, the only memorable examples of this I can think of are really more accurately best friends to enemies to lovers, which is basically just another way of saying enemies to lovers, isn’t it? I think best friends to lovers with no major friction point in between is just a bit too easy for me. I like a little torment before my happy ending. : )

(I feel like these first three items could pretty much be summed up as internal-conflict or external-conflict. I’m internal-conflict all the way. I’m happy with some external conflict to move the plot along of course, but what I’m really here for is two people struggling within and between themselves with how they feel about each other and what to do about that. That’s my catnip.)

Oh no there's only one bed OR long distance with correspondence: Hmmm… only one bed, I think. I can enjoy long-distance correspondence depending on the context, but only one bed is just the kind of awkward-forced-intimacy thing that brings out the complicated feelings kind of dynamics I love.

Fantasy au OR modern au: Modern AU. I enjoy some fantasy-based canons (though I don’t care for high fantasy as a genre), but I rarely read non-modern AUs for modern-based canons, and I generally find myself drawn to modern AUs for any fantasy canons I get into, so… yeah. Just seems to be my comfort zone.

Smut OR fluff: This shouldn’t be an either-or situation, but I guess I would go with smut? Only because it’s more likely to annoy me when a fluffy story builds up sexual tension and then doesn’t resolve it than when a smutty story doesn’t really incorporate a lot of fluff. But in general both of these elements exist in some quantity in most of the stories I like best.

Mutual pining OR domestic bliss: Definitely mutual pining. Domestic bliss is fine for epilogues, but for the story itself, I’m here for the pining and fretting and internal conflict, thank you very much. : )

Alternate universe OR future fic: Hmmm… probably AU? I can certainly think of future fic that I’ve enjoyed (and some canons are such that future fic is the best/only way to write a plausible canon-universe resolution to a relationship, so that can have an impact), but if I think back on that catalogue of what I’ve read and written across fandoms, I’ve probably read/written more AU than future fic.

One shot OR multi-chapter: Both! If forced to choose I’d say a multi-chapter, because a good multi-chapter means I don’t have to figure out what next thing to read for several days at least, and it can be more immersive (especially if it’s AU). But assuming a one shot of decent length (e.g. at least 10,000 words or so), I really enjoy both.

Kid fic OR road trip fic: Neither one of these speaks deeply to my soul, but I’ve written and read both of them, and I like them both for different reasons. But I think I’d say road trip fic just because most people who like kid fic are more, like, *into the adorableness of the kid*, whereas I mostly just find it sometimes interesting to see adults try to navigate adult relationships with the added complication of a kid in the mix.

Reincarnation OR character death: Ick, neither. >< I will only accept character death if it’s a) not concerning either of the main pairing, or b) fixed by the end of the story. I can be interested in reincarnation as a background thing (e.g. two people who meet each other in the present somehow discovering they have some past-life connection), but I don’t accept it as a solution to character death (e.g. everybody dies, but don’t worry, they’ll find each other in the next life…).

Arranged marriage OR accidental marriage: Intuitively I’d say accidental marriage, though I’m not sure I’ve ever actually read an accidental marriage story. ^^ Though I guess Ranma ½ was basically one big long arranged marriage story, so I dunno, maybe that’s a more accurate answer…

Time travel OR isolated together: I like both, but I think time travel speaks more to my id. And I define the term relatively broadly, encompassing kind of anything where someone who is at a certain point in their life has to confront the person they were and the decisions they made at an earlier point in their life, whether that’s because they meet their younger self (e.g. the Akame fic Wish Upon A Wishing Stone), or they experience another version of their present (e.g. my Akame fic Real Life), or they go back to some earlier point in their lives to try to correct a mistake (e.g. one older WIP of mine that I still hope to finish one day, and a more recent WIP that I won’t discuss further because spoilers : ), or they just encounter someone who symbolizes and encompasses their past and they have to come to terms with them in the context of the present (e.g. about half of the Akame fics that I’ve written and read—9 ½ Weeks by Haikuesque is a good specific example though). Isolated together can be fun for short stories, but for me time travel holds much greater depth of possibilities.

Neighbors OR roommates: Roommates. I mean, I think they can both come down to similar things, and I can enjoy both, but roommates gets closer to “there’s only one bed” territory, where two people have to share the same space while trying to ignore/suppress the burgeoning romantic and sexual tension between them. That’s less true when they’re just neighbors.

Sci-fi au OR magic au: I’d have to go with sci-fi AU, mostly on the strength of the JE Fleet stories from Akame fandom. But those were also crack. ^^ As mentioned above I’m in general more of a modern-AU person, so while I don’t object to magic or sci-fi, and I’d read either if it’s written by an author I like or has an intriguing premise, neither one is something I tend to seek out.

Bodyswap OR genderbend: I’m going to have to go with bodyswap, since that’s the only one of these two that I’ve actually written (well, written and posted. I have a genderbend-in-the-sense-of-crossdressing Akame AU WIP in my files somewhere, but it’s still a long way from being finished, unfortunately : ). But I’ve read few of Kame-turns-into-a-girl stories that were fun, so while I’m not a *fan* per se, I’m also not against it. I’m not so interested in always-a-girl style genderbend though. To me, the interesting aspect of genderbend is in the “something has gone terribly wrong and we have to figure out how to put it right (and in the meantime everything is awkward)” premise.

Angst OR crack: Oh god, both? Sometimes in the same story… >__> (Angst though, if I have to choose. I could live without crack, but angst is a necessary ingredient in a lot of my favorite stories.)

Apocalyptic OR mundane: I’m not even sure I understand what this means, but I guess I would go with mundane? I mean, I don’t like stories that are mundane in the sense of “boring”—I want there to be tension between and within the characters, and I want there to be things happening—but in general I’d pick a story where two characters are in a room working out their shit for 10,000 words before I’d pick one where they’re out saving the world from aliens together for those 10,000 words. I can enjoy saving-the-world stories, but the parts I love most are the parts where they end up sitting in a room (or a cave, or the woods, or the Jingshi… >_>) together and working out (or failing to work out) their shit.

Goals for the coming year:

1) Pass the B1 exam in German.

I currently have temporary residency in Germany, but if I manage to pass the B1 language proficiency test before the end of my third year here, I’ll hopefully be able to apply for permanent residency at that point. I also just want to improve my German to become better able to navigate life here, but for the moment my goal is the B1.

2) Write more fanfic.

My output has been lower than I’d like these past couple of years because of all the other things I’ve had going on (moving to Germany, finding a new job, etc.), but I really want to make writing more of a priority again this year.

3) Sort out my savings.

My old retirement plan was predicated on the way things are done in the US (e.g. 401k, etc.), and I haven’t yet figured out what to replace that with in a German context. Sometime this year I need to sort that out and make sure I’m saving what I should be saving in all the right places.

4) Plan my and jo_lasalle 's wedding.

(*insert gif of Jo screaming ^__^*)

I have a ginormous family in the US who weren’t able to attend our small, practical civil ceremony when I first moved over here, so part of the deal was that Jo would consent to participate in a ginormous American wedding to celebrate our marriage when we were ready to throw one. We’re currently targeting August 2021, so there’s time yet, but… : )

I think that's it for now! This seems like a manageable list, right...? : )

Now for the funsies! My fandom history…

( TL;DR Highlights )

( Much Longer, More Navel-Gazey Version )

In celebration of Akame Day on Friday, I posted a little something new... ^__^