Ren the Ghost

1. I am, and have been for a while now, sick! I'm just not sick enough to do anything about it---look, my immune system is all topsyturvy and I forgot I'm not supposed to take my meds when I'm sick, so... that didn't help (my meds aren't great for my immune system, either). But I have remembered! So no meds for a while. We'll see what happens.

2. Season 2 of Elsbeth is out and I am very excited! I just finished rewatching season 1 <3

3. I watched Jack & Joker: U Steal My Heart!, a BL thai drama and had a good time! The mains have really good chemistry and I thought the acting was really good. And I loved the slow burn of the romance, how clear it was they cared about each other before they ever said anything.

4. I had to default on highadrenaline, which I feel doubly horrible about because I have a gift from it. But I set a deadline on which I had to default if I hadn't gotten to X point and that passed days ago and I'm not any nearer (and wouldn't be even with an extension) so I bit the bullet and hit the button. Ugh. And I was excited about it :(

5. Boosting kindreadspirits. "This is a chat and fanworks community centred around making the most of the gay subtext abundant in a lot of vintage horror and classic ghost stories, namely of the Victorian through the Edwardian era and towards the middle of the 20th Century."

6. Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint (the novel) is getting an official release from Yen Press starting in August and I read 'Dokja Kim' in the blurb and my soul died. Why must Yen Press keep doing this to me?

7. I'm reading The Hobbit for the first time. I must have bought it ages ago; it has the cover from the Jackson movies, but I've never touched it. (I have so many books I bought and then didn't touch again...) I'm about halfway through and greatly enjoying it this far!

8. Related, I've barely read anything so far this year (lots of fanfiction, of course); only finished two books so far: Lout of Count's Family vol 2 (which I adore!) and Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (which was fun!)

9. I'm in my 'clearing out my books' feels again. I now have a pile of books on my floor because my executive function ended there. ...I'll get to it eventually.

10. I have a guestbook on my fanfic site now, which is super cool!

I signed up to fffx for the first time and this morning I got an email from modzilla (the event mod). The Fear(TM). It was fine! Just somebody with questions regarding one of my requests but still. I was not prepared, lol.

Anyway, I wasn't originally going to sign up, but I finished all my exchange fics back in June, which was very nice in July, but now I'm just kind of going 'but... but... fic... deadline... where?' all the time. Like, I've done (counting the ones I've finished but which are technically not over yet) like 12 exchanges so far this year and the break was nice, but now I'm bored.

A reminder to myself, fandomgiftbasket is still going, so do that too!

On that note, I have a mystery gift from fandomgiftbasket! I'm very excited, I requested like 8 different fandoms so no idea what it's gonna be. I also got a delightful All for the Game, Jean/Andrew/Neil fic for rarepairexchange. I do feel bad because I've still not read either of my gifts from fandom5k, but they're Long, and I just don't have the emotional wherewithal right now, sigh.

I started watching Meet You at the Blossom on Viki, a BL cdrama which I really like so far! But every other episode Stuff Happens and I have to write a fluffy fic to heal my heart before I can keep watching, so I've written two fics today and am working on the third while I work up the courage to watch episode six. (Stuff has Happened. Things have been done. Shit Is About To Go Down, I'm pretty sure.)

• Fic 1: leave with the memories
• Fic 2: carve the root from the tree branch

(Like, regarding fffx, I'm dubious about my ability to write a 10k fic, but I'm fairly sure I can do two 5k fics, so I plunged in headfirst, lmao.)

Anyway, I still need to write (check's notes) 8.6k words by midnight tomorrow to hit this week's writing goal, so please excuse me while I panic. (This post was definitely not a moment of procrastination, why would you... I mean... why-why-why... ehem, why would you think that?)

Ok wait no I realized. That I actually want to post something today. Because it's leap-year! And a Feb 29 won't come back around for a while!

So.

Ehem.

Anybody else watching So Help Me Todd? I've binged it and I high-key adore it? Like, there's just so much warmth and energy in the performances and the way the characters interact with each other and it's just delightful. I made a quick post about it on Mastodon and I still wanna gush, so I am gushing and you can not stop me.

The humor of the show is just kind of heartwarming. Like, a lot of it isn't outright jokes, or jokes at anybody's expense, but rather just the way the characters interact with each other and about each other—we're having fun with them, not at their expense. They joke with each other, they get excited together, they run off to save the day supporting each other, and it's heartening and also amusing when antics occur because antics do occur.

A big part of the show is Todd (titular character) and Margaret's (his mother) relationship, and it's both entertaining and got a lot of heart. They start off the show kind of separate but then increasingly get pulled closer together as they start working together and grow to understand each other better and also understand how they might have hurt each other in the past, and move beyond it.

Like, it's lovely?

They grow closer over the course of the season (season 2 is airing now, I think) and grow more comfortable with each other and in turn their interactions become more amusing. Also they love each other. Everybody just treats each other well, and wants what's best for them, and it's great, I honestly love it.

Also, shout-out to the line "Permission to treat witness as hostile daughter!" from Margaret when she's—interviewing? Cross-examining? I don't know, I'm not a law person—her daughter Allison who's acting as a witness during a trial thing (Margaret is a lawyer, Todd is a private investigator who starts working as an in-house investigator at her firm, Allison is an ER doctor).

Also also, season one seemed to set up a love triangle between Todd, Susan (his ex who is now an attorney and works at the same firm) and her fiancé Peter, but also there's a whole episode that just seems to be "oh my god Peter is so great" and look what I'm saying is OT3.

Please hold, I have to switch to HTML so I can do the spoiler thing. (Everything was already formatted in Markdown, *flops down on the floor.*)

The Love Triangle

Okay so season 1 ends with Susan and Peter eloping in Las Vegas, so like they're married now. And I don't know what this means! I want OT3 goodness and there are a lot of casually queer characters in the show but do I dare hope? [Insert keysmash here.]

Like, Todd has a few other casual love interests over the season, some amorous encounters if you will, but they don't end up going anywhere and he's still single by season end. Which is more than fine, actually, because the season's end is really lovely, a great moment in Todd and Margaret's relationship, and also Todd finds out Susan is eloping and he doesn't chase her down to confess his love or whatever which I just really really appreciate.

But now I have Feels™ and I don't know where to put them, LOL.

Look, this show has just burrowed under my skin okay, I've had it on repeat in the background while I'm writing stuff for... awhile now. I feel like, I don't know, it's just kind? Conflicts aren't pointlessly dragged out, and the characters are allowed to help each other and support each other and be kind to each other.

It's got energy, it's got warmth, it's got humor—and I'm just really excited for the new season (and also low-key terrified they'll the drop all the balls, LOL.)