i'm sitting feeling sorry in the Thirsty Dog

WTF, Subsconscious?!

2022-02-05T08:39:46Z

A couple of days ago, I had a dream about Eyeshield 21.

It wasn't weird, since ES21 is one of my first and long-lasting fandoms. What happened in the dream though, was super duper weird.

The starring roles were played by Seijuro Shin and Himuro "Maria" Maruko. They were dating.

Even with my strong tendency and love for rarepair and crackship, this is a pairing that never, not even once, in more than a decade in the fandom, crossed my mind.

Like, Shin/Maruko? Shin/Maruko? Shin/Maruko?

The only thing that I could come up with was ... they do look alike?

So, they were walking home, and Maruko was wondering if she should accept an athletic scholarship abroad. Shin encouraged her to do it (hey, at least he was somewhat IC). In the next scene, they were lying on futon in Maruko's living room, in front of the tv. Maruko's granddad(!) was there too. They kept arguing about the scholarship, and her granddad was so annoyed by their voices that he kicked them out of the room. So now these two had to sleep in Maruko's room, where there was, naturally, only one bed.

I couldn't make this up.

Anyway, Maruko ended up going, and the last scene of my dream was Maruko doing sit-ups, smiling and thinking about Shin.

I'm still so curious about where this dream came from.

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2021's June Something: Day 6

2021-06-13T07:04:20Z

Day 6: What's a fandom that you wish had a bigger following?

I mean, my fandoms are all small fandoms, so... all of them?

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2021's June Something: Day 5

2021-06-12T09:50:11Z

Day 5: Compare and/or contrast your very first fandom obsession and your very latest fandom obsession.

Very first fandom obsession: Eyeshield 21. Latest fandom obsession: Medium.

Well, one of them is a manga about a high school Japanese student who becomes an American Football athlete, and the other is about an American psychic woman who goes crime-solving. The Venn diagram doesn't really overlap here.

As for similarity, both fandoms are of the "come for X, stay for Y" type of fandoms. ES21 is "come for the cracky humour, stay for the emotional roller-coaster". Medium is "come for the premise, stay for the extremely lovable Dubois family".

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2021's June Something: Day 4

2021-06-06T09:33:48Z

Day 4: What are the origins of your penname/username?

Derwent is the surname of the female main character in Agatha Christie's Why Didn't They Asked Evans? I like the sound of the name. When I was considering what penname to use, I saw the book peeking up from my desk and decided to use it.

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2021's June Something: Day 3

2021-06-05T09:45:43Z

Day 3: What's a favorite, or at least memorable fandom meeting/interaction that you've had?

yelp wrote me this amazing fic for Gen Freeform Exchange 2021. I love it, but I also realised how niche my request was. It was gen, it featured two minor characters that are often overlooked.

So, imagine how excited I was seeing other people enjoying the fic! On top of that, someone created a gorgeous illustration for it!

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2021's June Something: Day 2

2021-06-02T12:08:17Z

Day 2: You've got your OTP, you have to throw a third into the mix (from the same fandom), creating an OT3. Who is the OTP, and in your opinion, why would they make a perfect third for them? Bonus question: What about adding a third to your OTP from a different fandom? Who and why?

I'm going with the easy answer and say Bond/M/Q (mainly because I've read and enjoyed fics about them). Bond and M are both people who've been through a lot - M with his history of being a soldier, Bond with, well, everything - and Q brings a youthful ease into the relationship. He lightens things up.

My id wants Bond/M/Vesper, but they simply don't work - mainly because Bond and Vesper's love is so intense that it doesn't leave any space for anyone else.

Adding a third from a different fandom: no. Crossover is not my cup of tea.

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2021's June Something: Day 1

2021-06-01T06:58:27Z

Day 1: What's changed about your fandom life in the last 365 days?

More time for fannish stuff! I've been WFH since March last year. Before that, I had >2 hours of commute every day, which was so exhausting that I had no energy for anything else but going straight to bed each night. Even on weekends I was still too tired to do much anything.

Since WFH, though, I've been spending most evenings consuming canons, writing, or just logging in to AO3 and DW and keep up with fandoms. This free time is why I managed to reach a couple of milestones: writing my first >5k fic and participating in exchanges for the first time.

In the last year, I also got into new canons and revisited old ones. Of the new ones, the most significant is Watchmen. Of the old ones, I reread Eyeshield 21 (baby's first fandom!) and got around to watch the entirety of Medium!

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2021's June Something

2021-06-01T06:37:37Z

I saw the promo post a few days ago at @fandomcalendar and found the questions interesting!

Here's a masterlist of the questions, from the creator squidgiepdx:

( Read more... )

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Finishing Medium

2021-05-16T08:35:43Z

On Friday, I watched the last two episodes of Medium's final season. Now I feel empty.

I first saw Medium around a decade ago, I think? I watched any episodes that came up on reruns, so not in order and definitely not all episodes. This February I was looking for something light-hearted to watch and picked Medium. (I could've picked Peaky Blinders or The Man in the High Castle, but they were too dark and heavy and I just didn't have the emotional bandwidth).

Medium turns out to be perfect. This pandemic definitely affects that - relentless realism depresses me, sheer escapism irritates me. Medium provides a perfect balance: it has enough mundane realism (especially the Dubois's struggle with money) mixed with my kind of escapism (psychic woman goes crime-solving!).

I didn't expect to be so heavily invested in the show, but well, here I am, moping because I want more.

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Reason Number 139 to Love Eyeshield 21

2021-03-20T07:38:31Z

It's little details like this that make me love ES21.

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Sigh

2021-03-13T10:14:20Z

So apparently the Russian Eyeshield 21 fandom is having an event. There's been a steady stream of new contents uploaded over at AO3, some fanart but mostly fanfics.

And normally I'll be having a field day with it ... but I'm not. I'm just not in the mood to read google translate's kooky translation and try to make sense of it.

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John le Carré

2020-12-14T09:55:13Z

This morning, I woke up to find that John le Carré had passed away. Unexpectedly, I cried. It's the first thing that made me go "fuck you, 2020".

I bought a secondhand copy of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy last year. I'd heard the title tossed around before, the way you hear about classic works. The book was in good condition, and importantly, the price was in my range. So despite not knowing anything about the plot, only that it's an acclaimed work, I bought the book.

And then I read it. It wasn't love at first sentence, or even first chapter. Like I said, I didn't know anything beyond the short summary on the back cover, and I wondered what the hell does this Roach boy has to do with spying?

But then the story drew me in. And when I finally reached the ending, I did something very rarely do: I turned back to the first page and read the whole thing all over again right away.

The book made my almost-four-hours-in-total daily commute, in a cramped train car, bearable.

When I finished TTSS, I decided to read all his books in publishing order. I had to stop after The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, though, because the cumulative bleakness got too much, plus it was early in 2020 when the news about the virus began to dominate the papers.

If it weren't for TTSS, I probably wouldn't have gone back to writing. I still have one Ann/George WIP waiting for me.

I'm so glad I already took today off work so I can cry in peace.

I am grateful for his life.
— Quentin Hardy (@qhardy) December 13, 2020

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The Devil's Mistake

2020-11-08T09:47:32Z

Ugly crying every time.

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Been revisiting ES21 ...

2020-11-01T08:40:15Z

... and I'm certain it was this manga that started my lifelong love affair with minor characters. Seriously, despite having Loads and Loads of Characters, the mangaka successfully made them distinctive and memorable. Even those who only showed up once or twice throughout the series (Kobanzame-senpai! Togake Habashira! The occult-obsessed nurse!).

Gosh, I have so much love for this manga.

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