Aria's Hollow

Last night I got back to playing The Unavowed, having previously enjoyed the Blackwell series, which takes place in the same universe. I'm playing the policewoman background, and started and finished my first mission with Eli and Mandana, having previously been possessed by a murderous demon for a while, until Eli found and exorcised it - yay for Eli! Even if he did also summon another demon in its place. I had them kill it, which I kind of felt bad about, but Eli approved (even though Kalash did NOT, actually the first meeting was a lot of him scolding us and finding me very unimpressive). But anyways, onto mission 1!

When I first got on the bus I didn't realize I had to click on the door to choose a destination so I was just standing there (there were so many free seats, WHY DID I STAND XD), listening to Eli and Mandana chat, not knowing when we would arrive but being like 'well this is nice :)' until I found the door and read the description. And then when we arrived I just heckled my companions like 'WHAT DO WE DO' and they were both like '...we only just got here...we need to actually like...look around?' and from there on the mission was a weird mix of me being real spot on about certain things and real dumb about others, which I think is just the mystery-point-and-click experience.

Plot-wise, I really liked the first mission. The progression of it kept me interested, the clues were pretty clever, and it was definitely extremely spooky. I felt very investigator-like, which was very satisfying. All around, mystery writing GOALS. In general I remember the mystery-satisfaction being a highlight of the Blackwell series as well, and it's great to see that is still the case in this game as well.

From investigating a burnt down homeless shelter, we learned that while I was possessed, I not only murdered a ton of people, I also started a cult! As demons do. Specifically, my demon took in sick homeless persons and 'healed' them through ritual blood sacrifice, which grew also grew a magic tree in the basement. I immediately got Big Spooky vibes from the whole building, with all the creepy drawings on the walls and the way everything looked a bit wrecked. I found the fuse, and when I went into the basement I forgot Eli could make fire (I blame Eli for this; his description was him flailing around in the dark, and I had the fuse, so I accepted he was useless there at first lol). Eventually though, I accepted I had not missed any other fuse box around the building and made Eli do his thing, which allowed me to do my thing with the fuse, and then BOOM magic tree and creepy corpse - with ghost. (Oh, and I guessed the laptop password on my first try, which usually doesn't happen!)

Once we got Wendy to talk and admit she killed the guy when she was left in charge of the cult (my demon ditched, left a fellow called Jordon in charge, who also kinda ditched and left Wendy in charge), we headed down into the sewers (it took me a bit to find them though since my eyes kept glazing over the entrance on the street). I liked that everyone was kind of just looking at the bubbling pool of water like 'yup...that is weird' lol. I looked at the burning pipe wheel and thought 'touching that should probably hurt' and then I made my fella try it, and it did! And then I couldn't figure out what to do with the key because I forgot Eli was immune to heat again (I only remember his powers when I want to set aflame an innocuous but spooky mattress, not when heat puzzles actually show up). Once I remembered that though and realized turning the valve opened the slot for the key, we were back in business as we found Jordan, who was now permanently on fire, having cast a spell to get rid of the chronic cold that was part of his illness. Which I was not expecting! He was just suddenly there, aflame, and so we had to investigate more and try to do something about it.

Turns out his spell was what destroyed the homeless shelter, and I used my cop credentials to get into the crime scene and poke around. I touched the icy locker and hurt myself because I didn't notice the ice right away, so Eli had to thaw it. Inside was an ice cube with a shape in it, and in my excitement to see what I was sure was another dead body I touched the ice and hurt myself again. xD Eli thawed that too and it was, in fact, a dead body, specifically Jordon's dead body. He turned his soul into an elemental, which just...WOW how did he manage to do that spell SO BADLY that that happened? Either way, with his body dead all we could do was either slowly kill him or banish him to the realm of elementals. I chose to banish him. Who knows, may fire elementals have a thriving civilization! He could become a valued member of society! Eli did not approve though, while Mandana did, and that was interesting chat.

Now I'm just back in the base, and need to start my next mission. And hopefully learn more about my demon, which is still out there being a problem somewhere. We still don't entirely know why it needed a life-force eating cult. I do think I missed some kind of side plot though since I never figured out what PW =<3 meant. Also, as a final note, the music in this game is fantastic. It really adds to the atmosphere and I've been enjoying it a lot.

It took me a while, but I have finally finished reading Dracula! It was a story I had vaguely intended to read for a while, but the real push to stick with it start to finish was that it was now part of my informal 'reading the horror and sci-fi classics' project. It was overall, in my opinion, a pretty decent book, although it is quite different I think than what a lot of people probably imagine when thinking of it.

The story is written as a chronicle of sorts, with alternating sections being clearly labelled as a journal or recorded diary by one of our main characters, with the occasional news paper clipping or telegram. Structurally I found this an enjoyable and effective approach, as it allowed for the flair and limited knowledge of the first person narrative while also allowing us to jump around and see different perspectives and events necessary to tell the whole story.  It made it fairly fun to read, especially since the longer chapters could feel a bit daunting without the different sections to break it up.

Tonally the book was a bit odd, since it was a horror book, and it did have some horrific sequences, but much of the book was the characters doing very matter of fact research, looking over journals and asking house agents and mail persons about things. I guess it's just a Victorian quirk, but it made it harder to feel the tension in certain sequences (the climax was mostly just a travel sequence, with only a few spooky things before everyone does their thing and kills Dracula in the last few pages without too much difficulty. I mean Quincy Morris did die but there was so little text dedicated to that, that there wasn't much weight to it. Lucy's death stood out a lot more). This didn't make me dislike the book or anything, but it did mean I've come out a bit more neutral than with some other books.Some of the research I liked, it was quite cool that Mina got to figure out where Dracula was heading in the end by her own means, but other times the long counsel sessions weren't as gripping. 

There were, of course, some very dated elements of the book, mostly in the casual racism and sexism of the time. The 'evil gang of gypsies that work for Dracula for Some Reason' was uh...pretty yikes of course, as was most of the attitude towards the people outside of England. The gender dynamics were very sigh worthy (Mina and Lucy constantly being like 'oh thank GOD for BRAVE MEN what did we women do to deserve them' and the men being all 'we must Protect The Fragile Women'), though I do give credit for Mina being so involved with the action start to finish.

Outside of those elements though, I did find the characters somewhat fun, even if they were all a bit more consistently 'Pure Wholesome Victorian Well To Do' folks than I usually would imagine in a horror story now a days. It was almost comical at times actually, although I doubt that was the intent at the time. Also there was a lot of beseeching God, almost to the point where it started feeling like a stand-in for character moments. As in, instead of really exploring how demoralizing or frightening these experiences were there was just a lot of 'and I was fine-ish because we were in God's Hands *shrugs, does the thing without any issue*'. (Which again, I know is just typical of the time and especially of vampire stories, where crosses and holy water are common weapons, but it was still a little jarring at times) The beginning was actually the most horror-like by today's standards, when Harker was trapped in Dracula's Castle. That was eerie and fun.

There was a sort of inherent appeal to the writing though that made me like reading it, and the pacing was solid even if unusual for its genre. So while I wouldn't say I loved the book, I wouldn't say I disliked it either. It was a decent, pretty good book all in all. Dracula as a classic villain is a bit odd since he wasn't really developed almost at all as a character, but it's true he was consistently threatening and took the whole book to defeat, so I guess that's mainly why. Either way, I'd probably give it an average 7/10 rating wise, because there was some enjoyment there and mechanically it was quite good, but it also wasn't as thrilling as I might have hoped and a little too Victorian Preachy Ideals for me at times, even if it wasn't a huge drawback.

Dashing eagerly across the dirt lawn, Emmie clung to their bag of goods before settling down at the log table. Every fall, they and their best friend would meet to play games and eat food under the sinking sun. This time was going to be checkers, before that had been mancala. The table was laid with pumpkins, pies, and stuffed apples, the air filled with the scents of cinnamon, citrus teas, and freshly baked breads. From the large maple tree just south of them amber leaves fell and got caught in their hair. A candle was lit when the sky grew dark and they inevitably were still going. The hours went uncounted, basking in the warmth of each others' company. Arranging things on the table just so, they looked up to see their friend silhouetted against the sunlight, and waved in greeting.

---

I rarely write these sorts of quaint scenes, but orange is such a cheerful color and with themes like harvests and friendships, I wanted to give it a try. Though I did make myself kind of hungry writing this lol. I really liked the themes for this prompt, the associations were all bright and interesting, many bringing various kinds of imagery to mind. Orange and red are both warm colors, but I think orange is often associated as being a bit softer in tone. For my own future harvest prospects, that largely takes the form of completing various projects, especially my artistic ones. I always get excited to do the last edits for a short story, or the colors for a drawing, or even just progressing in a book or video game. I guess success is quite vitalizing. xD One theme for orange I liked a lot but didn't get to address was the theme of change; it fits neatly with the fall and harvest vibe, but can be applied to most of the others I think as well. Change is a sort of spice of life, and one of the roots of good storytelling, so it's a great thing to try and explore or be open to.

This is a short story I wrote for the Aromantics Create Pride event hosted by AUREA. It takes place in the universe of my Silver Gale work in progress, and follows two of the main protagonists investigating a haunted hospital. Rated PG. It was a lot of fun to work on, and I feel pretty happy with how it turned out, even if it didn't exactly turn out as focused on aromanticism as I originally intended (both characters are in fact aro though, as well as nonbinary). Please enjoy!

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Since nano (and actually during nano, though I'm not sure if I mentioned it on here or not), I've been taking Gale courses as well as working on my writing, art (to a lesser extent), and beginning singing practice. I'm taking both Spanish and French, and I've been enjoying both (though my French class doesn't teach me grammar or how sentences work, so on top of the non-intuitive reading system that has made learning it more slow going, honestly Japanese was way easier to wrap my head around but then I also went over grammar and better drills for that back in the day), though I think I ought to start practicing writing in those languages, even if it's just to say incredibly mundane things about my day. Who knows, eventually I may even make some posts here in them! (One thing I have found helpful for French in particular is listening to the French dub of Disney songs and having French subs to force my brain to associate the sound with the written visual, at some point I should try to watch a whole film or episode of something like that as well) I'm also starting to learn how to use Microsoft Excel and how an online business is ran (I figure it's good knowledge, and I gotta get skills for the new digital job market!)

Writing wise, I have put some effort into my main novel project! But have not made a lot of progress xD. Note to self: Investigations are difficult to write when you don't know what your villains are even doing. I'm pretty sure at least half, if not more, of my writing blocks came from 'still not developing/plotting my villains enough and being incredibly resistant to the idea, therefore giving my more developed heroes very little to work with/do' lol. I at least made an orderly doc to hammer out the villain plot, but working on the 'actions taken' part is still proving to be difficult. I've been having fun messing around with my aro shoujo project instead, and especially with playing d&d and writing tidbits for my character (who, is an au of one of my aro shoujo fellas).

Otherwise, I've mostly been taking things easy with the whole Plague Situation going on, but I hope to get to more reading done and maybe some baking as well.

Originally, I hadn't had a great deal of interest in the story of Frankenstein due to the pop culture image of the story (as it was all I was really familiar with at first). But after hearing that the book was actually quite different from that, and especially after reading and loving The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (another story I wasn't interested in until some other source gave me some idea of what the story was originally like), I decided I wanted it to be my next dive into 'Gothic' Victorian classics. And I was not disappointed! I ended up enjoying the book immensely, and both Frankenstein and the Creature were far more entertaining as characters than I would have initially anticipated. 

The writing style was an entertaining one to read, very eloquent and, as was common for the era, very interested in the minute details of a character's feelings or of the scenery they observed. The 'little details' got far more attention than they would now a days. Admittedly, the one drawback to this was that the Travel Chapters very much assumed you were familiar with all the local places of Europe, which as an American who has done little travel, I was not, making them far less interesting to me then they could have been. I did enjoy how much they described the feelings these places evoked in the characters though, since that allowed the reader to feel more connected to the characters, or at least as they understood their mindset very well. 

I did not expect Victor to be such an incredible drama queen though xD. I did rather enjoy it, but also I shook my head at his incredibly low constitution (few protagonists now a days would be written going into delirious, feverish shock at every great misfortune like our Frankenstein did lol). Though more than that, I of course shook my head at his obstinance in hating the Creature even though... it should have been tremendously obvious the Creature was going to stay around and eventually take on some kind of instinct, and they were Frankenstein's responsibility in the first place. In general, Victor had very poor common sense and typically just Hoped His Problems Would Go Away rather than taking direct action. If he was thinking straight, it would have been very obvious the Creature meant to kill those dear to him, and not take him on in mortal combat, but he didn't seem to figure that out on his own either. I did rather like him as a narrator though, he had his charm. And the Creature was of course a fascinating and tragic character, he was really just Tall and slightly ugly/unsettling in appearance but everyone tried to kill him on sight, and Frankenstein loathed him from the beginning, even though he was a rather kind fellow originally. By the end, of course, his morals have gone out the window in favor of fury and vengeance, and Victor ends up nearly the same, leading them both to their icy demise (or, fiery in the Creature's case if they kept their word).

All in all it was a very enjoyable, dark tale, and aside from a few quibbles I didn't really have any complaints. I can see how the book could lead to a lot of literary analysis, and a lot of different interpretations of what the 'message' is. I'll definitely be looking into other stories of a similar style in the future.

This was written for Aromantic Writing Month over on tumblr, using the prompts 'subverting romantic tropes' and 'friendship'. It takes place in the D&D au of my primary novel project and is a short, semi-philosophical piece where Fiera, our pov character, mulls over lost memories and her aromanticism (which she has no word for currently) with the help of her faux-boyfriend, Kadri.

Cold. Distant. That’s what the others had always called her, in whispers that faded down the corridors, in offhand remarks that begged judgement be met with indifference. Ever since she had awoken surrounded by cold ruins, vague images and feelings told her that whoever she had been, she had been unwanted, and decided to become an anthropologist. They admired her skill in spell casting and dedication to her cause, but questioned her work, and refrained from getting too close. They doubted a high elf lacking the famed fair complexion could advance at such a rate without deception. They thought it undignified to spend so much time studying the cultures of ‘lesser’ species.

But it was well enough that they did not want to spend time with her. She did not very much want to spend time with them either. They were narrow minded and could tell her nothing of her missing past. They gossiped about her ‘lack of love’ despite their own callous indifference towards her.  It was enough to simply know how they thought, and how to best maneuver them to make her life easier.

It was also, she had to admit, more convenient for her current study that she not have much to lose in regards to relationships, as she was currently committing an unwritten social taboo simply to see what changes it might or might not have in the long run: she was ‘dating’ a drow elf.

The bitter, hated enemy of her people, so often described as ruthless killers and amoral abominations, as nature’s greatest mistake. She had often wondered if the drow were half as vile as the stories told, but after having met one it seemed more likely the hatred came from an old grudge allowed to fester, the separation of their countries making outlandish exaggerations difficult to disprove. A high elf being a partner to a drow elf was unheard of, and she had just enough status to see the effects of such a scandal.

The drow elf in question, who now lead her down a street gently by the arm, was a fellow by the name of Kadri. They had met quite by chance at a library, when she was knocked down a staircase and nearly took him down with her. Things were sorted out, and she had immediately wanted to interview him despite her own nervousness once realizing what he was. It took some persuasion, and the promise to make the interview a two-way one (she felt she was enormously fortunate that the first person from her sworn enemy’s country was a scholar such as herself), but she got to spend the day conversing with him. Despite the clear distrust he held towards her and his barely concealed agitation, it proved to be one of the more amiable and fascinating conversations she’d ever had. He answered questions thoroughly and with a frank wryness, and asked thoughtful questions in return.

During the next two weeks they met up every day to talk more, and typically ended up conversing for hours on end. They were both frank with their prejudices, though she felt them growing more at ease as time went on. She learned Kadri was a warlock, sworn to serve the demon Kir’giren after they saved his life when he was a child, and was disappointed but unsurprised to learn he had suffered several times at the hands of her people. She told him about her fractured memories, and of her time spent with the sea elves.

By the time Kadri had to depart to serve his master on some quest, she was surprised to find that she was missing his company. She didn’t tend to miss people, if anything she felt more at ease when she alone in her house. Usually the only feelings of longing she felt were in connection to her mangled memories, the faces she could recall but not quite put into context. She definitely couldn’t call the feeling she had love, if she had to guess she probably missed the intellectual challenge of working with someone so different and so on edge.

Regardless of the cause, she determined that if ever they crossed paths again, they would speak at length. That was when she realized that he would actually be perfect for an experiment that she had had in mind for some time, if he could be persuaded. Suffice to say, they did cross paths again, she did manage to persuade him to fake being her partner for up to six months, and they had now been living together and pretending to date for a little over a month. And the initial reaction of her people was horrified confusion as she and Kadri had expected, but over the weeks, opinions started to become more varied. Some applauded their bravery, others thought Kadri had cruelly put her under an enchantment, and some thought this was the final proof that she was a willful traitor and could never be trusted.

Just walking down the street as they were now, people were glancing and glaring at them, some people hurried to get out of their presence, others stared and whispered to their neighbors. They were walking through the city square, browsing some shops before looking for a place to eat.

“Are your thoughts happy, Fiera?” Kadri asked, snapping her out of her reverie.

“Huh? Oh, I was just reminiscing a bit. So perhaps bittersweet is a better descriptor. Why, did I look happy?” she asked.

“You looked contemplative. Are your contemplations ones you’d wish to share?” he said. Fiera turned to look at him properly. Even now he insisted on keeping his hood up in public, and his eyes were watchful, but underneath the wariness he did seem genuinely curious.

“I suppose…if I may ask, what do you think of love? I promise it’s relevant,” she said. Kadri seemed only slightly taken aback by the question; one of the first things she had told him before agreeing to the experiment was that she would never love him, and if he fell in love with her then that was his own problem to deal with alone, so he already knew the subject was one she had given thought to. He gave the question a moment of thought before answering.

“If anything, I think it is something I understand very poorly. I claim only to love Kir’giren, but that is truthfully a wild oversimplification. I know it drives others in equal parts to great acts of generosity and great acts of cruelty. I know there is very little agreement, between individuals or between groups, what exactly ‘true’ love is, and yet they at the same time take for granted that people will recognize it with ease and react accordingly. I have read enough to have some idea what most people see as loving actions, and that it is associated with attachment. But that is where my knowledge ends, I’m afraid.”  He said.

“Then you don’t know much more than myself,” Fiera sighed. “I was wondering about the nature of feelings, and the nature of relationships, and how they relate to memory. You have all your memories intact, and have, I believe, had crushes before, so I hoped you might be able to offer some insight. You don’t suppose emotions can be born of memories, do you?” Kadri looked quizzical.

“Crushes? I would hardly relate those to love…ah, but to answer your question, not exactly. I think it more accurate to say emotions are associated with memories. We do feel things in the present, after all.” He said.

“True…then I ask you instead, are there any memories you would forget if you could? Would you still be you if you had different memories?” she said. She knew she was prying at what was both purely a hypothetical and quite possibly personal, but the possibility of losing more memories, or of not being who she used to be, were ones she considered often. If she asked too personal a question Kadri would just tell her that.

“Hmm… I believe it may be more truthful to say there are many things I wish had never happened to me in the first place. But they did happen, so I would not let go of them.” He said. Then he chuckled to himself. “But then, I am an incredibly miserable person often stuck in the past. Surely, if I had different memories, the essence of me would be the same, but I would see the world in a different light.” Fiera thought about that. Without her old memories, she had been forced to grow new ones, and she wasn’t discontent with them…

“That is fair. I suppose I just wonder if my old memories have truly withered away or not. It can feel strange to be ‘moving on’ when that is not certain.” She said.

“Well, I suppose it would be hypocritical of me to in any way judge…” Then his expression grew slightly softer. “Truly, Fiera, you are not lacking in any respect. You are exceptionally driven and kind, and brilliant beyond compare. I do not doubt you will find joy and peace in your own way, no matter the circumstances of your memories or your relationship with that nebulous thing called ‘love’.”  Fiera smiled at that. Kadri would sometimes just say stuff like that, about her or about some of his old travel companions, and yet still denied having friends or attachments in this world outside of his master. Though she did sometimes wonder if he simply idolized anyone who wasn’t cruel to him. Either way, it was an appreciated statement even if she yearned to be able to confirm its truth in a more concrete way.

“You are kind to say so. I have a similar faith in you.” She said, and she did believe it. Kadri gave a laugh, and the thinly veiled pain in his eyes made it clear that he didn’t.

“Truly, you are too generous. Ah, but here we are, I don’t think I’ve been to this place before. Can you tell me of it?” he said. Fiera silently noted the quick change of subject, and then went on to tell him whatever she could of the little restaurant they had come upon.

She had always been called ‘cold’ and ‘distant’. And even now, she knew she was not in love. But she didn’t feel cold, or distant, when she was chasing her memories or spending time with Kadri. She wasn’t sure why he seemed to be an exception, perhaps it was simply because he had no expectations of her other than to fulfill her side of their agreements without mocking or betraying him, which was easy enough to do since he always did the same on his end. No, the feeling wasn’t love, but it was a warm kind of feeling. She wondered if they were friends, or only amiable business partners, or if it really made a difference. Certainly, if she called him her friend to his face, he’d probably find some excuse to go away and never return. But privately, she would like to think of him as a friend. She didn’t know what her past would reveal, about herself or about those she must have known, but there was always the present, and a dream for the future.

Perhaps the memory of joy and peace could still be grown in some other way.

Alright, I'm back and ready to see how many of these challenges I can get done. At first this challenge seemed a bit difficult since I usually am more passive in fandom creating/consuming, but after a bit of thought here's what I could come up with:

So I finally introduced myself properly to the classic story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde via the 1994 concept album, which I actually stumbled upon quite by accident, and have found myself somewhat fixated on it, and so here I am jotting down some thoughts. First, a small handful of thoughts I had while listening to it:

- 'omg he's just a Ravenclaw gone out of control'
- 'see this is why a philosopher shouldn't be a chemist'
- 'YEAH THAT WOULD BE THE DRUGS, HENRY' (when Jekyll is all like 'gee I wonder why turning into a being of pure malice through agonizingly painful transformations is so EXCITING' early on before things really Escalated)
- 'THE ACTING, THE DRAMA, UGH WHY CAN PEOPLE SING THIS GOOD'
- 'D: WHYYYY ;~;'

To elaborate, I quite liked the story. xD Anthony Warlow was absolutely STUNNING as Jekyll and Hyde, he really has a beautiful voice and totally sells all the confusion and anguish and hope that Jekyll experiences throughout the story, as well as all the ill intent of Hyde. He portrays a Jekyll that is quite likable and admirably determined even if his goals were kind of insane from the beginning ("What makes a man do acts of evil...surely the answer and cure to this can be found with the right chemical formula let's do this what could possibly go wrong") and the fact that he becomes so detestable as Hyde (how much of Hyde's personality being unique/separate and how much is born from Jekyll's own buried flaws/desires is deliberately unclear and fascinating to ponder). His romance with Lisa, his fiancee, is very sweet (they had such a nice romance song! And I may not be big on romance in general, but a good musical number is certainly one way to sell me a couple as genuine and worthy of my support), and though it wasn't featured in as many parts of the story his friendship with John was great too. The subplots I wasn't quite as good at following in detail through song alone but there were nevertheless some moving songs dedicated to the side characters (JUSTICE FOR LUCY ;~;), which I liked as well. Man was the ending a total downer though, I mean it made sense and is entirely appropriate for a gothic thriller/cautionary tale, but UGH the acting was so good so it was just so upsetting.

I very much plan to read the book to have a more detailed review on the story (and to read some other gothic thriller classics like Frankenstein, since apparently the style speaks to me?), as I am admittedly right now primarily obsessed with the songs themselves and Warlow's ridiculously good singing (I could really just...go on and on about each one in detail, but I'll refrain lol). But yeah, definitely would recommend this version of the story to anyone whether they've seen/read other versions before or not, it's fantastic. Hopefully this leads to more literary/musical discoveries down the road!

Hello everyone! The first challenge of this year's fandom snowflake challenge is to write an introduction of yourself. Since I haven't actually written a proper introduction for myself on here before, I thought I'd give it a go! I go by Autumn (though you can call me Aria too, since both on here and pillowfort I go by 'Aria's' Hollow) and am an avid fan of storytelling and writing. In particular, I've always been drawn to fantasy and science fiction stories, stories with horror and/or mystery elements, and stories that are deeply character driven. I'm not too picky about what medium the story takes, as I love playing video games, reading books and comics/manga, and watching television and films. I've done a lot more watching lately than anything else, but I'm making a point to get back into reading and gaming as well now. (For anime and manga I use myanimelist.net, and for books I use goodreads, since having lists/goals helps me stay on track. Haven't found a good site equivalent for games or films yet though...)

I also do a fair bit of writing myself. Of course, since my focus tends to jump around like some kind of hyperactive toad, I have yet to finish most of my WiPs, but nothing is ever really abandoned with me either, for fanfiction or original fiction. Similar to my consuming interests, I write a lot of character-centric fantasy and sci-fi stories, which can range from original superhero stories to dystopian fantasy to shoujo-inspired magical girl/boy series among other things. Over on pillowfort (and sometimes tumblr) I also showcase my art of all my ocs, though I may delve properly into fan art at some point as well. I've also been doing nanowrimo consistently since 2015, so hopefully that will eventually kick some of my drafts into the finished stages! 

Outside of fandom geekery and writing woes, the other thing always popping up on my journal is that I am aromantic and asexual and fairly loud about it. I'm definitely on the repulsed side for both, though I'm more heavily sex-repulsed than romance-repulsed, and that has certainly informed a lot of my story preferences and fandom experiences. While there are certainly romance stories I've liked or even really liked (Cardcaptor Sakura is one of my favorite series), I generally prefer a story to have little to none of it, or at least not have it be the only kind of relationship that gets to shine. Likewise, there is little romance in my original works and my fanfiction doesn't tend to get very shippy (since... I don't tend to ship anything in the traditional way). That said I am very much a 'ship and let ship' kind of person, though since this is my own journal aroace interpretations and personal rants/opinions will be mixed in with general reviews. 

I also hope to start writing more meta for the series I love! Normally I keep my thoughts swirling around in just my head, but I want to try putting more of them into words, and maybe even do some liveblogs of certain shows or video games. 

My main other interests are music (I'm a big disney and musical fan, as well as a wide variety of other styles), food/cooking, languages, and clothing design (mainly for character design ideas). I generally like to ramble and talk about different ideas and interpretations and what not, so feel free to send a message or leave a comment if you want to chat about anything in specific.