Trabia Garden

The third of four instalments walking through my fandom history! Apparently my accumulation of fandoms really sped up in my early twenties; I picked up all six of these fandoms within two years.


Waterloo Road

I wasn't introduced to this by a friend or family member, and I didn't see talk of it online and decide to check it out. I got into Waterloo Road by complete coincidence. I was twenty-two years old, on my own in my house in Brighton, with no Internet access. I idly turned on the television. There was some sort of school drama on; two schoolboys, Josh and Finn, were having an urgent conversation in an empty room. This feels oddly homoerotic, I thought, moments before one of them kissed the other.

I watched the rest of the episode for the fallout, then had to look up the television schedule to work out what it actually was that I'd watched. Waterloo Road? I'd never heard of it. But apparently it had been running for over eighty hour-long episodes, and you bet I was going to watch them all. I love stories about teenagers making bad decisions, and Waterloo Road was absolute gold on that front.

(Disastrously, I can feel myself being tempted to rewatch it as I write this.)

Waterloo Road had absolutely no LJ-based fandom; I could only find discussion on soap opera forums, where people did not engage with fandom in a way I was used to. It did have a bit of presence on fanfiction.net, but nobody seemed to be writing about Josh Stevenson, who was the character I really wanted to read about. I took it upon myself to rectify the lack.

My Waterloo Road/Hunger Games crossover attracted some really weird reviews. For example:

this story is very long eh eh

l reely like josh and his dad and jodi (Jodi does not appear in the fic; apparently this reviewer just felt like listing all their favourite Waterloo Road characters.)

i can come to your school

Favourite character: I loved Tom Clarkson, Sambuca Kelly and Tariq Siddiqui, but the subject matter of my fanfiction shows a clear bias towards the prickly, defensive, easily-exploited, struggling-with-his-sexuality Josh Stevenson.
Favourite pairing: Maybe Tom/Karen? I was extremely sad that Tom, who was constantly banging his way through the staff room, never got around to the headmistress. But my main relationship focus wasn't actually a romantic relationship; it was Josh's relationship with his father Tom.
Number of words written: 26,612.

Snippet: I was extremely sad that we never saw Josh meet the girls Tom took in after the death of their mother.

( Waterloo Road unfinished snippet. Josh meets Chlo. )


Glee

I started watching Glee when I was just about to turn twenty-two, but it comes after Waterloo Road in this list because I only started writing fanfiction for it six months later, when the show introduced Blaine. I 'shipped Kurt/Blaine ferociously and immediately.

Glee was an intimidatingly huge fandom. You couldn't be in Glee fandom as a whole; you chose one aspect to be interested in and hung out with other people who were interested in the same aspect. Kurt/Blaine was very much my corner.

The show was a bit of a disaster with inconsistent and occasionally oddly spiteful character writing, and the fandom was weirdly vicious and had intense 'shipwars (although at least it was when the main ammo for 'shipwars was 'CLEARLY THIS PAIRING IS THE MORE CANON AND INTERESTING' rather than 'YOU CAN'T 'SHIP THAT; IT'S MORALLY WRONG'). I still had fun watching and writing for it, though. But I don't know if I'll ever be able to watch it again; two of its stars died young, one after arrest for possession of horrific pornography, and it's hard to forget that and enjoy the show.

Favourite character: Honestly, it's hard to pick out a favourite character when the character writing was so inconsistent! In the first season, it was Quinn; she was a bully teetering on the edge of redemption in a way that interested me. In subsequent seasons, which increasingly forgot that Quinn existed, it was between Kurt and Rachel, and then settled as Santana.
Favourite pairing: Kurt/Blaine was the entire focus on my involvement in Glee. I 'shipped it from before Blaine was technically introduced; the 'Teenage Dream' performance was released as a preview and Kurt was just so charmingly smitten!
Number of words written: 20,061.

Snippet: Of course I attempted a Glee/Silent Hill crossover.

( Glee unfinished snippet. Kurt/Blaine, Glee/Silent Hill, 2010. )


X-Men: First Class

I watched this with th_esaurus at the age of twenty-two and enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting. I very rarely get into films in a fannish way, and this is the only film fandom I have that passes the 'at least ten thousand words across at least three fics' test. I've actually never written for X-Men on its own; the three fics I've written for it were all crossovers (with Misfits, Silent Hill and Pokémon).

This film became a lot harder to rewatch after I realised that every scene ends with a terrible one-liner.

Favourite character: Charles Xavier. I think? It's entirely possible I tell myself Xavier is my favourite character just so I have a favourite character for every letter of the alphabet.
Favourite pairing: For X-Men: First Class, it's Charles/Erik. For X-Men in general, it's Rogue/Logan, which I still have to struggle not to write as 'Rogan/Logue'. Technically, I've never written either pairing, although I've come closer to writing Charles/Erik in the sense that I have actually written fanfiction about those characters.
Number of words written: 11,228.

Snippet: Oh, damn, I should have checked my old notebooks when I was at my parents' place over the weekend! I checked them for a couple of other fandoms, but I hadn't realised I don't have any unfinished X-Men fanfiction in electronic form. I think I had something where Charles had very unethically wiped Erik's memories to make sure they'd stay on the same side.


Uncharted

Jak and Daxter was one of the first videogame series I got fannishly into, so I was interested to check out what else Naughty Dog had done. One of my first purchases for the PS3 I received for my twenty-third birthday was an Uncharted/Uncharted 2 bundle. I was distressingly terrible at shooting and quickly gave up. But then Red Dead Redemption taught me to aim, and I came back to Uncharted after finishing it.

It's fortunate that I bought the first two games bundled. The first Uncharted never really clicked with me; I probably wouldn't have picked up the series again if I hadn't already owned the sequel. But I loved the second game.

Every main-series Uncharted game from the second onwards has a sequence where Nate is staggering around in a state of agony and/or delusion. Naughty Dog know what I like.

Favourite character: Elena Fisher! The first Uncharted character I fell in love with (I came to love Elena in the first game, Nate in the second and Sully in the third), and still my favourite. Smart, sharp-tongued, no-nonsense, well-fine-maybe-a-bit-of-nonsense. Kicked her kidnapper out of a helicopter once. My absolute favourite part of Uncharted 4 is the part where she mocks you while you play videogames. I would buy a full Elena Fisher Mocks Your Videogame Skills Simulator in a heartbeat.
Favourite pairing: Nate/Elena, absolutely no question. They've got such chemistry, they have fun together, and I love that we get to see Nate being vulnerable around her.
Number of words written: 16,195.

Snippet: I've never made any secret of my feelings about Sam Drake, who is the worst, but, weirdly, I do 'ship Sam/Sully. This snippet contains Uncharted 4 spoilers.

( Uncharted unfinished snippet. Sam/Sully, 2017. )


Dangan Ronpa

At the age of twenty-three, I was sitting outside a pub in Ealing with a group of friends, and one of those friends said he'd been reading a fan translation of a Japanese murder mystery game. One of the characters, he said, was me. He showed me some pictures of Touko Fukawa.

He later sent me the link to the fan translation. I swiftly realised he'd been rather uncharitable in comparing me to Fukawa, but by that point I was already hooked. Teenagers! Thrown into a horrible situation! Making horrible decisions! Being overwhelmed by guilt!

This is my third-most-written fandom in terms of wordcount, following Assassin's Creed and Top Gear. I have written Dangan Ronpa fanfiction every year for six years in a row, which is highly unusual. Typically, I'll have a burst of writing activity in one fandom and then move on to the next, but somehow I keep coming back to this series. I've written for the original Danganronpa, Danganronpa 2, Danganronpa: Another Episode, Danganronpa 3 and Danganronpa V3, but 2 is my favourite in the series and the one I've written the most for.

This was the first fandom (to my knowledge) in which I got plagiarised! I wrote a time loop fic that got startlingly popular, and someone put it up on their fanfiction.net account. It was swiftly taken down.

(My other experience with plagiarism: someone took my Doki Doki Literature Club fic Memory Error and put it up on their Pastebin account. I was very puzzled when I discovered this. Pastebin doesn't seem like a practical plagiarism website! It doesn't have any sort of commenting system! Surely you want a way for people to praise you for your stolen fanfiction? It's still up there; I wouldn't really know how to go about getting it taken down. Fanfiction websites have rules against plagiarism, but I don't imagine Pastebin does.)

Favourite character: It's moved around a lot, but I think I've settled on Hajime Hinata as my favourite Dangan Ronpa character. He's just a normal kid, insecure and sarcastic, heart in the right place, thrown into a terrible, terrible situation. He feels very real to me. And that makes him the perfect protagonist for Danganronpa 2, because most of the characters in that cast are incredibly over-the-top, and Hinata is a great way to make things feel grounded.
Favourite pairing: Ooh, maybe Naegi/Ikusaba? But Hinata/Komaeda is extremely fucked up and alarming in a way that appeals to me enormously. I 'ship Hinata with everyone, really, but particularly Komaeda, Koizumi and Kuzuryuu. To be honest, I also 'ship Komaeda with everyone. And Shuichi (but especially with Kaito). I also really like Kaede/Rantaro. Look, I 'ship everything in Dangan Ronpa.
Number of words written: 64,899.

Snippet: For a while I was hoping to write a series of Hinata/Komaeda fics based on classic fluffy fanfiction clichés, but I only managed 'huddling for warmth'. This was going to be 'Komaeda nurses Hinata back to health'.

( Danganronpa 2 unfinished snippet. Hinata/Komaeda 'hurt/comfort'. )


Community

Having heard good things about Community, I checked it out at the age of twenty-three. I thought from osmosis that the show was The Nerdy Adventures of Troy and Abed; I was confused to discover that there were a bunch of other central characters! I knew there was a Britta somewhere, but I had no idea that Jeff, Annie, Shirley or Pierce existed.

I still think the first season of Community is the best series of television I've ever watched, which is impressive, given that it includes a character (Pierce) I don't like at all. Apparently he was not enough to dislodge it from that lofty place in my esteem!

Favourite character: Jeff. Soft-hearted self-interested sarcastic arsehole in love with six people, one of whom is himself. I love him.
Favourite pairing: JEFF/ANNIE. It's a controversial pairing, but, holy crap, that chemistry. I also love Jeff/himself and Jeff/the entire study group.
Number of words written: 11,341.

Snippet: I think Community is in the rare position of being a fandom where I finished every fic I ever started! That usually happens with fandoms where I've only ever written one fic, with no intention of writing any more (Doki Doki Literature Club, Final Fantasy VI and Jiggy McCue, for example). But with Community I've written four complete fics and absolutely nothing beyond that.

Waterloo Road is back on television with episode 7.21, and you know what time that makes it? IT'S RIONA RAMBLES ABOUT HILARIOUSLY TERRIBLE DRAMA VERY FEW OF YOU WATCH TIME.

(Note that by 'hilariously terrible' I am not trying to claim that my enjoyment of Waterloo Road is ironic. I cannot deny that my love of Waterloo Road is absolutely sincere and equally indefensible.)

I hate that it looks like they're giving Josh a drug-addiction plotline, because Josh has already learnt his lesson about drugs! In an extremely dramatic, distressing fashion! With your vast array of characters, Waterloo Road, surely the Wheel of Plotline Assignation could have fallen on a student who hadn't had a previous traumatic drug-related incident? Presumably he has forgotten about that occasion because of the drugs.

I'm not complaining about Josh actually getting a plotline, though, because he's been practically invisible for far too long. Maybe we'll get some Josh and Tom interaction! I have missed Josh and Tom interaction. Maybe that interaction will contain the line, 'What the hell were you thinking? Did you completely forget what happened in series five?'

(Josh's hair has grown back! I am so pleased.)

In other news, Tariq appears to have unexpectedly become one of my favourite characters. Under all the posturing and anger and terrible, terrible decision-making, he's a good guy, or at least not a bad one. I realised I sort of loved him when he... framed himself for something he had actually done, I suppose (what do you call it when you use false evidence to implicate yourself in something you did in fact do?), in the hope that detention would keep him from having to do something terrible.

Plus he loves his sisters, and you know about my weakness for sibling relationships in fiction. He's also incredibly controlling towards his sisters, but my weakness certainly isn't confined to healthy sibling relationships. (He relies on Trudi to keep him on track! Awww.)

I shouted at the screen in appalled disbelief more or less every time Linda Radleigh said or did anything. THERE IS SO MUCH WRONG WITH YOU.


Just now, searching for something non-Waterloo Road related to include so this entry would be of potential interest to more than three people, I found this floating around in my 'stupid manips' folder:




I think it speaks for itself, really.

In case anyone who might be interested missed it on account of my terrible timing: I posted an X-Men: First Class fic whilst Livejournal was being difficult! No common sense. It is about Raven and Erik and Charles and their relationships with each other. It is also, inevitably, about Pokémon.


Over the weekend, I stayed with mogamus_ii! She had the first two X-Men films on DVD, so, at my request, we watched them.

I went into the films hoping to see more of the fascinating relationship between Erik and Charles. By the end of X2, they could have had sex right there on the screen and I wouldn't have noticed.

I am 'shipping Rogue and Logan more than I have ever 'shipped anything in my life.

No, seriously, it twisted my insides when I realised that the films were going to go the Logan/Jean route instead. I was so oblivious to any tension between them that, close to the end of the first film, this happened:

Jean: I think she's a little taken with you.
Logan: Well, you can tell her my heart belongs to someone else.
Riona: Wait, what? NO. NO IT DOESN'T. Who?
Logan: How's the professor?
Riona: He's in love with Charles?

Not that there necessarily wasn't any tension between Logan and Jean; it's quite possible that they were constantly setting the air between them aflame and I simply didn't notice because I was so busy hoping for more Logan-Rogue interaction.

I don't know how this pairing hit me so hard and so fast! During the truck scene after Logan and Rogue's first meeting, I was fascinated by the atmosphere and the dynamic, although thoughts of pairing them up hadn't occurred to me yet. By the train scene, I was shouting 'GET MARRIED' at the screen.

And then there was that intensely awkward scene at the beginning of X2 between Logan and Rogue and Rogue's boyfriend and I was dying with how much I needed Logan and Rogue to be together. X-MEN FILMS WHY ARE LOGAN AND ROGUE NOT MAKING OUT CONSTANTLY

I MEAN, YES, ROGUE'S MUTATION WOULD KILL ANYONE SHE MADE OUT WITH, BUT OTHER THAN THAT YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE.

I'm visiting my family at the moment, and so it's time for more tales of family adventures!


(Scene: around the dinner table. Dad is talking about what he would do if he won £166 million on the lottery: give each of his children ten per cent, put ten per cent in a trust fund for his wife to set up charitable initiatives, try to spend ten per cent in the first year, buy a sports car and a country mansion...)
Fred: So, would you give any to your cousin? (Note: I don't know the exact details and I'm going to withhold some of the details I do know for the sake of discretion, but Dad's cousin has basically screwed him over with regard to a financial matter.)
Dad: (without hesitation) I would bankrupt her. I would hit her with lawyers like she wouldn't believe.
Joseph: You'd look quite bad in the newspapers.
Fred: Couldn't you get her some sort of clever present?
Dad: I think bankrupting her would be quite a clever present.
Mum: It's not exactly a 'present'.
Riona: You could send her an envelope containing a newspaper clipping about your win and fifty pounds.
Dad: Yes, I could do that.
(pause)
Dad: And then I'd bankrupt her.


(Scene: my brothers and I are carrying a chest of drawers to our house. A group of teenage girls pass on the other side of the road. We do not know them.)
Girls: Lily, you can tell the truth; everyone else thinks she's weird as well.
Fred: (calls loudly) THAT'S MY SISTER.

Thanks, Fred.


It was my brother Joseph's birthday party yesterday! At one point, I was taking a quick break from all the socialising when I heard pained yelling from multiple voices. Concerned, I went downstairs to investigate.

There were nine people piled on Joseph's bed.

This was not an orgy, I should clarify; it was just a lot of people piled on a bed. I have absolutely no idea how this came to be the case. It's not a small bed, but I strongly suspect it wasn't designed for nine.


Finally and unrelatedly: here is an absolute joy of an X-Men: First Class fanvid. It's almost frightening how well it works. LET'S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS...

X-Men: First Class Fic Ideas That Seem Good Until You Think About Them For More Than Three Seconds: all the mutants somehow have their powers temporarily reversed.

Yes, Charles is suddenly broadcasting his thoughts into everyone else's heads, and that's potentially interesting, but as it turns out he is the only one with a power that can be sensibly reversed.

Erik is controlled by metal objects. They just want him to polish them all the time.

Whenever Raven tries to turn into someone else, they turn into her.

Alex attracts blades of destructive energy; it is fortunate for him that they are not naturally occurring.

Sean has the power to... be... really... quiet?

Darwin adapts to die, suddenly sprouting gills in the middle of the desert or losing his skeleton when trying to run away from something. Curiously, he manages to survive despite the overwhelming odds against him.

I mean, I do sort of like the idea of Erik screaming with frustration when he wants to kill Shaw but can't tear himself away from polishing his submarine. Regardless: this is not a fic that should be written.

(Of course, there are worse ideas. I'm trying to think of them. CHARLES IS SECRETLY MADE OF METAL AND ENJOYS THE WAY ERIK CAN MANIPULATE HIM. Has anyone written that? I bet it's only a matter of time.

SOME ACTUAL GOOD IDEAS WOULD BE NICE, BRAIN.)


I've just realised that, although I've linked various people to this previously, I haven't yet posted a link in an actual journal entry! Please enjoy wtf r u doin james mcavoy, my very favourite tumblr, dedicated to this ridiculous man and his ridiculous poses.

reipan and I went to see Glee Live! at the O₂ last night! We were seated in what I think is called the Upper Tier but should really be called 'oh my God help why are we in the sky', so we were extremely high up and the performers looked tiny, but it was great fun! And it all sounded fantastic. I really don't know why Glee bothers with autotune.

All the performers stayed in character throughout. I loved that, even though we were so vertically far away from the stage, it was always possible to pick Kurt out of a group performance just from the way he moved. His dancing was ridiculous and delightful, and he could never just walk across the stage; he always sort of skipped.

Kurt also had a short skit in which he referred to the Queen as 'Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth the sequel' and became very excited indeed about being in 'ENG~laaaand!', bless him.

There was rather a lot of screaming from the audience, which was a negative (and at times quite a painful) point. Still, I can't really claim to be particularly mature, given my ridiculous dancing to 'Raise Your Glass'. I RAISED MY INVISIBLE GLASS. I PUNCHED THE AIR ENTHUSIASTICALLY WITH THE HAND HOLDING MY INVISIBLE GLASS, IN FACT, WHICH WAS PROBABLY NOT MUCH GOOD FOR THE EQUALLY INVISIBLE CONTENTS OF SAID INVISIBLE GLASS.

Prior to the show itself, a large screen began displaying quotes followed by images of the Glee characters who said them. It was interesting to see which characters got cheered the most. The fandom's favourites appear to be Kurt, Santana, Puck and the back of Blaine's head.


Today, I watched X-Men: First Class for a second time with reipan and my brother Joseph. I was a little afraid that upon watching it a second time I'd suddenly realise I didn't love it, but no; it may have its flaws, but I love this film. (And I 'ship Charles/Raven/Erik so much. Come on, fandom, let's have more of that.)

The post-film discussion somehow ended with me shouting 'I REFUSE TO WRITE FANFICTION IN WHICH MEWTWO IS THE LOVECHILD OF ERIK LENSHERR AND CHARLES XAVIER' at Rei in the middle of a restaurant.

(If, like me, you're not sure whether to spell Erik's surname 'Lensherr' or 'Lehnsherr' (both spellings have been used in different forms of X-Men canon), I noticed on this watching that it was 'Lensherr' in the subtitles. So I suppose that's the canon for the universe of this particular film? Oh, I don't know. I think I'm probably going to pointedly avoid mentioning his surname if I write any more fanfiction.)

Semi-relatedly: WHAT IS THIS VIDEO OF JAMES MCAVOY

WHY IS HE SO TERRIFYINGLY ATTRACTIVE TO ME


Family adventures:

Joseph: I've been juggling for people.
Riona's Father: Can you not manage five people?

I think my favourite part was how very pleased with himself my dad looked.

Also:

Joseph: ...I don't remember doing this. (holds up his donor card, on which is written, in red crayon, 'I LIKE BLOOD')

WATERLOO ROAD WHAT

NO

THAT IS THE WORST PAIRING EVER

I GENUINELY DO NOT THINK I COULD HAVE COME UP WITH A MORE HORRIBLE PAIRING HAD I TRIED

And to think there was a scene in the episode that made me hope there might be half a chance of Tom/Karen. Alas, no; Tom/Karen must remain the baseless pairing of my heart, and instead we get the worst pairing ever. It's as if the writers went, 'Oh, hello, Riona! Would you like a piece of delicious chocolate cake? Yes, I thought so. Well, sadly we have no delicious chocolate cake to offer you, so we're going to hit you with sticks instead.' Is it absolutely necessary to bring out the sticks, Waterloo Road? I'm not entirely certain that the two things are substitutable.

Yes, all right, almost none of you watch Waterloo Road and so chances are this entry won't make any sense to you, but I had to express my disapprobation somewhere.


Oh, before I forget, I meant to make a quick note on the tennis yesterday. It's very difficult to get me to care about tennis most of the time, but dangle an Isner-Mahut match in front of me and I won't be able to take my eyes off the scores. I was so hoping they would play for another eleven hours, or at least that Mahut would win this time (he's my favourite because he looks like a porcupine), but alas no.

I want to write fanfiction set during the eleven-hour match last year, in which the world ends around them and Isner and Mahut don't notice because they're absolutely focused on playing. Isner hits the winning shot and falls to the ground in victory, and as he gets to his feet again he notices, for the first time, the eerie silence in the stands.

(Yesterday, I found out that Mahut was six foot three and went 'hang on, that can't be right, he's so much shorter than Isner'. And then I looked Isner up.

John Isner is six foot nine. How is that even a real height?)


And back to X-Men!

I'm quite amused by the way the appetite of fandom constantly expands to demand slightly more than it's been given, no matter how much it's fed. James McAvoy claims he had sex with Michael Fassbender four times, and the primary reaction I see on Tumblr is 'NOT ENOUGH TIMES'.

On that subject: James McAvoy, you massive troll. He and Misha Collins should work on something together. They'd end up competing with each other to see who could render the largest number of fans unconscious.

Here is a delightful thing I watched recently: the X-Men: First Class trailer redone with footage from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. No, seriously, it's beautiful. If you're wondering 'would that really work?', the first shot will give you your answer. Many thanks to nightfire_kvala for the link!

I think X-Men: First Class is officially my fandom of the moment. I wonder how long it'll be before I try to cross it over with either Silent Hill or Pokémon. Either could be fun, where by 'fun' I mean 'fun' in the case of Pokémon and 'completely devastating' in the case of Silent Hill.

...my goodness, Silent Hill was made for Erik Lehnsherr. But, then again, so was Magneton. Decisions!

I swear I'm going to get to the how-they-ended-up-in-the-1960s part at some point. Some point.


Title: X-Misfits: Training
Fandom: X-Men: First Class/Misfits
Rating: R (violence, swearing)
Wordcount: 1,000
Summary: Scenes from the training of the ASBO Five, not that ASBOs exist at this point in time. Sequel to X-Misfits: Recruitment.


( X-Misfits: Training )


Sequel: X-Misfits: Confrontation

I don't feel remotely capable of writing X-Men: First Class fanfiction myself, but it's still quite fun to speculate on stupid AU ideas. Erik and Charles could found Hogwarts together! I thought at first that they might fall out because Erik was uncomfortable with accepting Muggle-born students, but of course that wouldn't work; this is presumably a world in which magic is a genetic mutation and has been hidden by individuals who believe themselves to be alone, so pure-bloodedness/half-bloodedness/Muggle-bornedness wouldn't really exist as concepts. Maybe Charles has dreams of a world in which magic and Muggles coexist, whilst Erik thinks they'll only survive if they create their own community unknown by Muggles, parallel but separate, much like the wizarding world in the actual Harry Potter books.

Also, there should be a Misfits crossover in which Charles recruits the ASBO Five and finds himself completely incapable of keeping them in line. Whenever Erik claims that mutants are superior beings, it's a struggle for Charles not to cast his eyes significantly in Nathan's direction.

It doesn't matter that I can't write any ideas I might have, really, because the best possible X-Men: First Class fic already exists. It is a Groundhog Day-inspired reworking of the beach scene, and it is over here, and it is amazing. Written by amazingly_me and highly recommended.

Also, I'm obviously totally biased about this because it was written for my prompt, but here is a fabulous little work of Erik/Raven(/Charles) smut in which Charles is a guilt-ridden psychic voyeur and it is everything I could have hoped for and more. (Bit selfconscious about confessing to the prompt, but I thought I'd better be honest about the possibility of bias; besides, if I'd posted the rec on its own there would have been the possibility of someone scrolling down to the OP's response and going 'hang on, this abundance of italics looks awfully familiar', and I'd rather unmask myself than be unmasked.)


Today, I spent quite some time searching for a male Seviper in Pokémon White just so I could nickname it 'Severus Snake'.

Well, 'Sev Snake', because sadly 'Severus Snake' wouldn't fit within the character limit. But you and I know what I meant.

I have absolutely no right to be this pleased with myself.

I had a day out with th_esaurus yesterday! We watched X-Men: First Class in the cinema and ate ice-cream and went to a private art exhibition where I pretended not to be aware of the fact that Matt Berry was standing next to me. It was a wonderful day.

So! X-Men: First Class!


( Thoughts on X-Men: First Class. )


In the post-film discussion (over ice-cream, best day ever):

RD: What I want to read is Erik/Raven fanfiction where she turns into Charles.
Riona: I think I read a Lupin/Tonks fic like that once.
RD: Oh, dear.
Riona: ...where she turned into Charles Xavier.


As we went up the escalator at Liverpool Street, we noticed an advertisement, amongst all the others, saying only 'MIND READING TRICK THIS WAY', with an arrow pointing towards the top of the escalator.

There was no explanation.

We saw nothing unusual at the top.

There is nothing about this on the Internet.

I am a bit afraid that Derren Brown kidnapped us both as we stepped off the escalator and then made us forget about it. (Or maybe Charles Xavier?)