If your soul left this earth I would follow and find you

torino10154 and I just announced the 10th annual Salt & Pepper Fest over at hp_goldenage! All the info is here and we're accepting prompts here until the 16th. Take a gander if older Harry Potter characters are something that interests you!

We also will be announcing a new round of firewhiskeyfic soon for December (as soon as I can get a banner made, tbh!) so look out for that.

In other news, over the past few weeks/months(?), I've been watching The Venture Bros. and now I'm on the last season and find myself dreading the end. I know there's still a movie to look forward to (and the upside of coming in late is that I don't have to wait years to see it!) but I didn't expect to fall in love with these characters so deeply. I can always rewatch, but I'm going to miss having new (to me!) stories about these characters to devour. On the plus side, I'm having fannish feelings and little fic ideas and can feel that desire to write waking up within me, so maaaybe that might happen??? And if I've consumed all the canon, that will be easier to do. (I've been playing around with different ideas as I've been watching, but then something will happen that will, in a way, cover what I wanted to explore and be (unsurprisingly!) so much better than what I came up with, so yeah, it would probably be better to wait until I'm finished to seriously work on anything. There's also the fact that for me it's so intimidating to write for new characters and takes time to really get their voices right. I was so comfortable in HP for so long and felt I could write pretty much anyone and be confident in my abilities to nail the characterizations and whatnot and every time I step out of that comfort zone, it's like I've completely lost any writing ability whatsoever. But writing snippets that aren't meant to be published and just playing around helps, so I might be doing that for a while yet.)

But mainly, I think I've been feeling disconnected from fandom and having fannish feelings for a while now, to the point where I thought maybe I was done? I've been spending my free time gaming mostly, which I enjoy very much, but that doesn't allow me to express my creativity (the way I engage with gaming at any rate! not saying that's true whatsoever across the board) and I was feeling a bit depressed to not have a fannish love so to speak. So yeah, this feels nice, whatever comes from it.

I've also been watching Game of Thrones with a couple of friends (one who has already seen it and one who, like me, has not) and as we approach the final season, all I'm feeling is more and more pissed off but I'm far too invested in the story to not see how it ends. Though from what I remember from its heyday, being frustrated and angry was not an uncommon experience so at least I know I'm not alone. It is just so obvious to me how much the show starts to flail when it doesn't have book canon to fall back upon. (And I have not read the books!) And though I'd heard that George R.R. Martin did share a few things he'd planned to do in the final book(s?), it's very clear the show writers were struggling without a solid foundation. And that's just sad, because the first few seasons were so good and satisfying, even when I was frustrated! Now it's just frustration with barely anything good to balance against that. But I will make it to the end, by golly.

I'm an episode behind on Quantum Leap, but very much enjoying the new season and the direction they've taken things. I was a little wary, tbh, but (and I'm being vague to keep this non-spoilery) I always found the writers to be so thoughtful in season one and so far they have kept that up. I have no idea how certain relationships are going to resolve but I'm comfortable enough to sit back and just enjoy the ride and trust the writers have this. We'll see!