kingstoken

Just a little about me for anyone who is newly following me or has stumbled across this journal. I am a fan writer, a gif maker, I make graphics like icons, moodboards and cover art, and I have tried my hand at making vids as well. You can find all my links in the sidebar or listed on my profile page. I am in many fandoms and am a multishipper, however I do have what I consider my main ships for certain fandoms, and I tend to ship mature pairings (with a few exceptions). I will list my current and past fandoms, and the pairings I really like in those fandoms, under the cut. I am the moderator for

fandomtrees, this is my is my fifth year doing that challenge, it is fun, but also mildly stressful. I have also run challenges over on tumblr. I am also an advanced editor over on Fanlore. On Dreamwidth I also post about movies and books I have enjoyed, in the past I did the

dwbookbingo. Unfortunately, that community is no longer running a bingo, but I liked doing it so much that I created my own book bingo, which a few DW mutuals do with me. This is the 2025 Book Bingo Card.
( Fandoms )

Can you believe it's July 1 already? (Happy Canada Day!) Where did June go? Anyways, I'm making pretty good progress with my Bingo card, I've filled roughly half the card, which where I want to be right now. Here are the books I read in the second quarter:

Star Trek: Captain to Captain by Greg Cox - listened to this one as an audiobook and really enjoyed it. It turned out to be much more about Una, Number One from Pike's days, than Kirk and company, but I still found it a compelling listen. The narrator did a good job with the woman's voices, they weren't whiny or cringey at all. It's the first in a series, and I really want to see how the story continues, so I have to read the second book at some point.

Adulting for Amateurs: Misadventures of a Geriatric Millennial by Jess H. Gutierrez - this was a series of humorous essays about being a millennial as an adult. I'm technically not a millennial, but I still enjoyed it. I will say some were better and funnier than others, but all of these types of books are usually mixed bags.

Honor & Heresy by Max Francis - two young men are locked in a magical library together and given the task of doing research and figuring out why a deadly enemy is attacking the empire. I know that may sound whimsical, but trust me it's not, it gets real dark at points. Both these characters have trauma and they only get more by being there. My one major complaint is I wish the M/M romance had been developed more.

Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben - this was pretty good mystery. The beginning premise is that a woman's husband has died, but then a week later she sees him on the nanny cam. I know that sounds like a pretty normal mystery fuckery, but this one doesn't go the way one would expect. I will admit at certain points I just couldn't figure out how some of these events all fit together, and I almost gave up in the middle, but I'm glad I stuck with it because it all made sense by the end.

The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau - this was a really good dystopian middle grade novel (which I just finished today!) The author did a good job with the 12 year protagonists, who both felt slightly older because of the world they were inhabiting, but they were also naive and innocent about others things. The author seemed to strike the right balance to me, which isn't always easy with this type of story. I also thought the world-building was great. I do wish I had young relatives in the right age range to pass it on to, because I'm pretty sure a 10-12 year old would really like it.

I also tried a novel called Horse by Geraldine Brooks, because I thought I might join my local library's book club, but I'm afraid I gave up half way through. It was one of those novels that flips back and forth between the past and modern day, I liked the portions set in a historical setting, but I found the modern day sections tedious and I kept wanting to skip over them, until I finally gave up.

HI everyone, I'm modding a new exchange, The Fanmix Exchange! It is exactly what it sounds like, you will create a character/relationship fanmix for another participant and receive one in return. Check out the community for more info:

fanmixexchange

Hello to any fellow Canadians followers I may have, you may have heard about the proposed bill Bill C-34 (if you haven't learn more here), that which bans social media for children under 16, but what you might not know is the proposed bill would require all adults to provide their ID to a third party verification service before accessing the internet. These verification services are notorious for data leaks, and there is currently no safe age verification service. It also means giving all your personal info and an image of your ID to an unknown third party. Which is a huge invasion of privacy.

So what can you do? Contact your MP! Find out who your MP is and their email contact info here. (even better if you can send them a physical letter, politicians love those for some reason)

The Reddit user EmbassedHelp has provided a great email template for you to use. Here it is in a easy copy and paste format:

Subject: Protect Canadians' Privacy: Oppose Bill C-34's Mandatory Age Verification Requirements

Dear [Prime Minister/Minister/MP Name],

I am writing to urge you to reject the mandatory age verification and age assurance requirements in Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, which would impose these measures across social media platforms, Al chatbot services, and adult content websites, including requirements previously proposed under Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne's Bill S-209.

Mandatory age verification and age assurance as a condition of accessing lawful online content is an unacceptable threat to Canadians' privacy when accessing social media platforms, artificial intelligence systems, and adult content websites. Requiring individuals to verify their age to access lawful online content creates new opportunities for data breaches, surveillance, and misuse of sensitive personal information. In the case of sensitive or stigmatized personal information like adult content, data breaches can cause permanent and irreparable harm. These requirements create records and metadata that link a person's offline identity to their online activity. They also disproportionately target marginalized groups, such as the LGBTQ community. Once this infrastructure exists, its scope consistently expands beyond its stated purpose as seen in other countries.

There is no such thing as private or anonymous age verification. Canadians deserve more privacy online, not less.

Protecting kids should not come at the cost of violating the privacy of all Canadians. I urge you to focus on better parental controls for parents, restrictions on K-12 school WiFi, and targeting services marketed as explicitly for kids. This would be in line with the recent Angus Reid survey on social media age bans, where 72% of Canadians said parents, and not the government, should be the ones enforcing the bans. Most Canadian parents already take measures to restrict their kids' technology and internet use. We should be supporting parents with better parental controls, instead of trying to force companies to violate Canadians' privacy.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Optional Postal Code]
[City], [Province]

Please spread the word far and wide, they are trying to push this thing through fast, and we need them to know it's not acceptable the way it is currently written.

fandomgiftbasket is back for another year! You can find my basket here. I'm asking for Sherlock Holmes (Rathbone films and Granada), BBC Sherlock, The Great Mouse Detective, The Pitt.

Now that the spring round of

holmestice is complete I can now share the gift I made, a fanvid of the wartime husbands from the Basil Rathbone films!

Watch on YouTube

It had been awhile since I had made a fanvid, so I was nice to try my hand at it again.

a work from an event from 2022	a work posted in the past month	a work from a science fiction/fantasy canon	a fanvid	an art you go back to
a work with a trope you rarely seek out	a work from an event from 2026	a work in a series	a work from an event from 2024	a work from a mystery/thriller canon
a work posted in 2026	a work from an event from 2015	FREE SPACE	a work posted in 2011	a work from a fandom that aired/released in the 1990s-2010
art on AO3	a work posted in 2020	a work posted in 2023	a work from a fandom that aired/released from 2010-present	a work from a drama canon
a work you've already commented on	a work by someone you've come across recently	a work posted in 2010	a work from an event from 2019	a work that made you sad

( Fanworks commneted on )

Alrighty, I finished season 2 of BBC's Sherlock and I'm still really enjoying it. I have some mixed feelings about the Irene Alder episode, I wasn't really a fan of the ending. I do love that she used Sherlock to get to Mycroft, but I didn't love the villain woman undid by love for a man thing. Also, her damsel-in-distress ending was disappointing, like no way, Irene is no one's damsel, Anyways, those issues aside, it was a fun ride.

The Hound episode was fun, it didn't go where I expected it, and it felt like a fun little interlude between the two juggernaut episodes.

Now, Reichenbach, the fans must have gone feral for this back in 2012. Moriarty was very good in this. I love his level of machinations.

Funny thing, if you haven't watched the Rathbone films you might not see it, but there were a couple of references to those films: Moriarty trying to steal the crown jewels, him going to Baker St and stepping on the squeaky stair as Sherlock plays the violin, they're definite nods, and I only got them because I watched the Rathbone films recently.

The conversation between Sherlock and John at the end, and the graveside visit, was heartbreaking, poor John. To know you're on the phone with someone and to think you're watching them take their own life, that would screw him up way more than he already was.

I really wish there had been a scene between Sherlock and Mycroft in this episode, I really do. It really felt like it was missing in this episode, and god, John never told Sherlock that Mycroft said he was sorry! Sad sigh.

Anyways, I think I'll take a bit of break before starting season 3, and yes I have been warned repeatedly that season 3 is not good and season 4 sucks, so I am prepared for that.

On the fandom side of things I've started reading fics, because of course I have, Don't worry I'm trying to read older stuff so I won't be too spoiled (but I've kind of been spoiled for a lot of things just by Holmes fandom osmosis anyways.) I ended up reading a Mystrade fic, and god dammit it, it sold me on the pair. I haven't really fallen for side pairing in while, but I knew it would happen again at some point. Don't get me wrong, I ship Sherlock/John, I ship pretty much every iteration of Holmes/Watson, but that is not where interest is really pointing at the moment. So if you have any good Mystrade recs, especially if they take place after Reichenbach, and deal with the fall out of all that, send them my way please.

(crossposted to Tumblr)

So guys, I'm so confused. I started watching BBC Sherlock to distract myself from feeling sad, I just finished the first season, and surprisingly I'm loving it. Are they in any way accurate to Holmes canon? Not even in the slightest. But each episode is like a fun action-adventure film with a mystery at the heart of it. They are so enjoyable!

I really don't know what I expected, but through fandom osmosis I had somehow gotten the idea that this program was a drama. Like don't get me wrong, there is some drama, but it's not a "drama". It's so funny the idea you get in your head about what a show is like when you've never actually watched it.

Anyways, I kind of wish I'd tried it sooner, but it has come along at the right time for me now.

(crossposted this one to Tumblr too)

Hey everyone, once again this year I'm running a little prompt fest to celebrate John Watson's birthday. Come leave a prompt or claim a prompt (all Watsons welcome). Link

Today is my Birthday! It is probably going be a quiet one this year, because we just moved and I don't feel like doing much. In fact I can't quite believe it's already April, but I'm grateful to experience another round around the sun.

(Also, side note, I know a couple of you have my old address to send physical mail, if you'd like my new address please DM me, thanks.)

We've been without TV since the move (we finally got the TVs hooked up to satellite late today), but I did get our DVD players hooked up, so last night we watched Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, my brother had it on DVD, and surprisingly I enjoyed it. I had avoided it years ago because I had heard it was really bad, and I will admit that it is not as good as the original trilogy, but it wasn't terrible either. I would say its an entertaining mid-level action flick, it just comes after a really well regarded and well loved trilogy so it just can't compare. Anyways, I enjoyed the introduction of Blackbeard, who is a real bastard in this one. The characters of Jack and Barbossa always play well off each other with their frenemies dynamic. I thought how they did the "fountain of youth" concept was neat. I also didn't mind the Missionary/Mermaid subplot. One of the drawbacks of the the film was the forced romance between Jack and Penélope Cruz's character. Jack admits to having corrupted her, but I think it would have been more interesting if she had been a former friend or maybe someone he tricked into becoming part of his crew instead of a former lover. There is also stuff Jack does that he should never have survived or are never fully explained, but you just go with it because it's Jack. Anyways, I'm not sure this is a glowing endorsement or anything, but I just wanted to share because sometimes the stuff you hear is so awful maybe isn't as unwatchable as they make out.

I'm moving on the 31st, so I'm going do my first quarter reading wrap-up now because I don't think I'll be finishing anymore books in next few days. The first part of the year has actually gone really well, I have read seven books and completed a full series! I'm sometimes terrible about continuing series, so I was very surprised by that. Anyways, here are the books I read:

Magician by K.L. Noone - a sweet M/M fantasy romance, although it also felt very melancholic to me. I don't know if it was the author's intention, but one of the main characters is sort of semi-immortal, or at least lives way longer than any normal person, and he falls in love with a human man. The issue isn't really brought up til near the end of the novel and I wish there had been more internal thought or angst about this issue. That being said I did like the characters a lot and the way the author described the magic was interesting, and almost poetic at times.

The Knight and Necromancer series by A.H. Lee - this is three books, The Capital, The Broader, and The Sea. I'm just going to talk about them together because I read them back to back (and they have kind of smushed together in my head), which is something I rarely ever do, but the story was compelling enough that I wanted to keep reading and I was lucky enough that my library had them all on the hoopla app. So this series is a M/M fantasy romance about a Knight, who is the brother of the Queen, and a newly fledged Necromancer. The Queen is trying to make an alliance between her kingdom and the necromancer's mentor. There is a big bad that is trying to destroy the kingdom, people don't trust necromancers so every time something terrible happens they try and blame it on the necromancer, plus there is demons and dark magic involved. And while all this is going on a romance has developed between the knight and the necromancer. I will say my recurring complaint with this series is that it's heavy on the fantasy and light on the romance. What we get of the romance is good, but I wanted more of it. (This actually the opposite problem of most fantasy romances I've read)

Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson - The main character has a condition similar to the "50 First Dates" movie where she forgets the previous day every time she goes to sleep, only instead of being played for laughs it's treated as the kind of horrific thing that it is here. Anyways, this woman knows something is wrong, and she can't trust her husband, and she knows this because she writes herself a diary and every day she reads it. You follow her as she tries to piece her life back together. There were moments where it felt you were taking two steps forward and one step back, but it makes sense in the context of the story. Overall, a very memorable concept for a mystery.

Justice League, Volume 1: Origin by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee - I was kind of surprised to find this comic volume in a free little library, but I enjoyed it. It is about the formation of the Justice League and these characters meeting for the first time, I think this is part of the new 52. I liked that they had Batman using his head and taking on more of a leadership role, because he is so under powered compared to the rest. I did feel that Superman was out of character though. Overall, lots of action, but it needed more character moments.

The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths - just finished this one today. It was nice mix of modern mystery and Gothic, which isn't easy to pull off. It is very centred on this school where one teacher dies, which leads to another murder, and it's all connected to another teacher at the school. There were three main POVs, I really liked Claire and Harbinder's POVs, one is an upper-middle class teacher and the other is an immigrant working class police detective and they both bring different perspectives to what is going on. My least favourite POV was the teenage daughter, Georgie, but I do think the author did a good job of capturing the feeling of teenager thinking they are way more grown-up than they actually are. Overall, a solid and enjoyable mystery.

The bidding for Fandom Trumps Hate 2026 is open! Just as a reminder I'm offereing cover art/moodboard for any fandom and a fic for Sherlock Holmes: Rathbone Movies.

I'm offering two fanworks for this years Fandom Trumps Hate, a cover art/moodboard for any fandom and a fic for Sherlock Holmes: Rathbone Movies. I'm not sure if anyone will bid on the Rathbone offer, but I still have it on the brain so it's what I offered this year.

Hi, for anyone who is not aware, it appears that

spikedluv passed away unexpectedly near the beginning of the month. The information is shared here on a comment on her last post, https://spikedluv.dreamwidth.org/2143159.html#comments, and has a link to her obituary.

spikedluv and I would often comment on each other's posts. I also had the honour of making art for multiple of her fics. She often bid on my offers for Fandom Trumps Hate and other fandom auctions. She was always such a pleasure to work with, and was always delighted by the graphics I created for her.

She loved Hudson & Rex and Murder She Wrote, among many other fandoms.

She will be missed.

Snowflake Challenge: A flatlay of a snowflake shaped shortbread cake, a mug with coffee, and a string of holiday lights on top of a rustic napkin.

Challenge #15

How Did the Fandom Snowflake Challenge Go?

I can't believe it's over already! I will say this year didn't go as well as past years, I didn't complete every challenge, but I did complete most of them. I think the ones I bounced off the most were the "talk about yourself" ones, I just wasn't in the right head space for them. I find those types of questions awkward anyways, I never know what to say. Like if you asked me to talk about my writing, or shows I like, etc, I can always find something to talk about, but stuff like "what do you like about yourself?" and my mind goes blank. I do like myself, I'm just not good about selling myself. I also, I made very few recs this year, in past years it felt like most of my posts were recs.

Anyways, I enjoyed myself and will probably be back again next year.

A gold snowflake ornament is nestled amidst pine boughs

Challenge #14

In your own space, create a promo and/or rec list for someone new to a fandom

I wasn't sure what to do with this at first, I talked about my love for the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films earlier during the snowflake challenge and I've made primers for other things I love for previous challenges, see Dead Boy Detectives and Sherlock & Daughter, so I decided to do something slightly different and try and convince Doctor Who fans to watch the Twelfth Doctor's run, specially his last season.

I've heard many Doctor Who fans say that they bounced right off of Twelve's first season, which I understand, because it was a little rough at first. Plus I know not everyone was a fan of Clara. So, they stopped watching or they skipped it. This is my way of trying to convince you to watch Twelve's last season (series 10).

Title: Doctor Who

Media: Television series

Approx length: 12 episodes plus one special, approx 13 hours (Optional: the two specials before this season "The Husbands of River Song" and "The Return of Doctor Mysterio", they are both fun, and if you like River Song you might want to check out "The Husbands of River Song" as it is River Song's send-off, at least for now).

What is it, in summary?: The Doctor finds himself acting as a Professor at St Luke's University, where he meets Bill, a cafeteria worker who sneaks in to listen to his lectures. All while the Doctor keeps a secret locked in a vault under the university. Bill is the main companion of the season, along with occasionally Nardole, a cyborg who is the Doctor's manservant/keeper.

What do you love about it?: First off, I love Bill, the Doctor and her have a great dynamic. She is impressed by the Doctor, but not in awe of him, and she's not afraid to ask questions, but rarely in a cruel way. At one point Bill pretends that he's her grandfather, which kind of fits. Bill's a lesbian, so there is no romantic tension, none of that, they're just friends.
Nardole is mostly there for comic relief. He is not impressed by the Doctor in the slightest, and he tries his best to keep the Doctor focused and following certain rules, with very little success.
Last, but not least, the third component to this season, that I love so much, is Missy, Missy, Missy! For those who don't know, Missy is the female incarnation of The Master. She was introduced near the end of Twelve's first season, but I don't think you necessarily need that context, you only need to know that this is the Master, and if you know Who at all you know something of their history. One sub-theme in this season is "Can the Master be rehabilitated?"

Content warnings: this kind of depends on the episode, but death, non-consensual body modification, injury, violence

Who do I ship?: First off, I kind of ship Doctor/Master a little bit in any form, but Twelve/Missy above all others. There is all this history and tension between them, but also this softness that neither one of them quite wants to admit to. There is also this yearning for a relationship from them both, but they can't quite trust each other enough to let it happen. There's a real tragedy about it. (Also, the chemistry between Capaldi and Gomez is great.)

I did like Clara, but I do wish that her time on the show had been a little shorter, or that Capaldi had agreed to do a fourth season, because I would have loved to have Bill for longer, and I wanted more time for Twelve and Missy's dynamic to develop, to see if they could build a better relationship between them.

I'm not saying every episode is great, some are much better than others, but I think it deserves so much more love than it gets.

Lastly, let me persuade with some gifs:

Bill:

Twelve, Bill, and Nardole

Missy:

Twelve and Missy (like look at the chemistry!)

An old-fashioned ornament of two young girls bundled up in coats and walking side by side is nestled amidst pine boughs.

Challenge #13

TALK ABOUT A COMMUNITY SPACE YOU LIKE. It doesn’t need to be your favorite, or the one where you spend the most time (although it certainly can be). Maybe it’s even one that you’ve barely visited. But talk about that space and how it helps support fannish community.

Here a few communities I enjoy:

- Holmesian Mantelpiece - this one is over on Tumblr, and its a community for all Sherlock Holmes fandoms. We have fun sharing fanworks and voting on daily trivia
-

fancake - is a great reccing community, every month is a different theme, and members share fanworks related to the them
- Fanlore Discord - if you're a fanlore editor come join us on the discord, we chat mostly about editing articles, etc, but also greater fandom stuff
-

holmestice - if you're looking for a Hollmes related exchange I highly recommend holmestice, they run two exchanges a year, one in the spring and one in the winter, and its open to all Holmes adaptations. I got a lovely Rathbone Holmes fic last round, plus a nice Granada treat.

Snowflake Challenge: A pair of ice skates hanging on a wood paneled wall. Pine boughs with a few ornaments are stuffed into the skates.

Challenge #12

Make an appreciation post to those who enhance your fandom life. Appreciate them in bullet points, prose, poetry, a moodboard, a song... whatever moves you!

I'm terrible with posts like this, but here goes. Thank you to everyone who follows me and leaves comments on my posts. Thank you to everyone who does the Book Bingo with me. Aand last but not least, thank you to all my fellow Fanlore editors, there aren't a lot of us, but we toil away trying our best to archive fandom history.

Anyways, please enjoy this multifandom dance vid I found on the net:

Watch on YouTube

Snowflake Challenge: A warmly light quaint street of shops at night with heavy snow falling.

Challenge #11

In your own space, grant someone's wish from Challenge #5. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it and include a link to your own post with the wishes you granted if you feel comfortable doing so.

I went through the wishlists and mostly gave recs, music for snowynight and kanadka, books for skytintedwater, podcasts for queer-scribbling, and a movie for cypresssunn.

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kingstoken

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