waterscroll

I've made a few friends in the Guardian fandom since the last time I did an introduction post, so hi, nice to meet you, I'm waterscroll. I've been in online fandom for about 20 years but I changed my fannish id last year because I was getting writersblocked. It helped, somewhat. My previous fandoms were all western canons but under this ID before I found Guardian I was all about historical otome novels.

(Otome novels are a kind of dating sim. In historical ones, you date fictionalized versions of historical characters, who are often at war with each other. It sounds extremely cheezy, but I've found them a wonderful genre for exploring how a conflict looks different from different perspectives and how everyone can be written as a hero from the perspective of someone who loves them.)

The main thread that runs through all my fannish interests under both my IDs is people dealing with the consequences and effects of war and of decisions that they made during wartime. I sometimes shorten this to 'redemption arcs for war criminals' but a) they don't actually have to have committed actual crimes as long as they made questionable decisions b) I'm ok if they don't get a redemption arc in canon as long as it is plausible to imagine one. This is a highly specific interest, I know, but it's been remarkably consistent over the years. I also love enemyships and love stories involving terrible people.

Guardian is my first cnovel and cdrama canon. I know this means that I'm missing things, or getting squeeful about things that are relatively common tropes in the genre. I might continue in the genre once I have bandwidth for another canon. Meanwhile I'm reading all the meta I can find and trying to tolerate my own learning curve.

I am not a particularly prolific writer, if I can write a few things a year I'm happy. I almost never write anything longer than 2000 words. I tend to be most interested in writing characters or premises that haven't been written that much. My favorite genres are post-canon fixits and canon divergence AUs, but I also like rule 63 AUs when there's something interesting to say about gender in canon.

For pronouns I'll take she or they. I'm in my late 40s. I live in the US but I didn't grow up here. Personal posts tend to go under access lock, so I tend to grant access once I get to know someone well enough that I think they'd want to read my personal posts, or once they grant me access and I'm commenting on their personal posts. But if you really want to see my vents about life in the pandemic, let me know and I'll add you.

Anything else you want to know?

Between kid and work I am busy and overwhelmed but I *do* have time. Getting engaged with something fannish would be hugely helpful right now. But, I am having trouble focusing on, well, anything really. When I have down time I endlessly refresh the New York Times, which is not a good idea because the news isn't going to get any better the more I look at it.

I am still keeping up with SLBP and IkeSen. In SLBP I'm enjoying the Kyoichiro route enough to get frustrated at only having five chapters a day. The MC is competent and goal-oriented and their relationship is collegial and practical. Also, after all these routes watching rich people do dumb wars that get lots of people killed I am pretty ready to watch someone rob the rich and give to the needy. In IkeSen I'm on the Shingen route, which is a fluffier version of the SLBP Shingen route and I'm not super-engaged by it but enough to keep clicking.

Things that I would like to regain energy to read/watch/play/focus on:
1. Guardians, which Scytale told me about, and I watched half an episode of before deciding that I am interested in watching more but can't focus enough.
2. Dororo, an excellent (but very dark) historical fantasy anime that I was about halfway through before the world changed.
3. Gintama, a completely different historical sci-fi/fantasy AU anime, that I was about twelve episodes into (out of about 400).
4. Three visual novels on my 'to-read' list on my computer: Nameless, A Foretold Affair and Angels With Scaly Wings.

There's also a new season of Doctor Who that I haven't watched any of, and I think the terrible new Star Wars movie is available for streaming (and it being terrible isn't a reason not to watch it), and Scytale gave me a good reason to give The Expanse another try.

Being able to distract myself with *something* fannish would help a great deal right now, I think, and five chapters per day of SLBP are just not enough. So, how to focus enough to make that happen? Any ideas?