The Freedom Song of the Jigsaw Girl

I keep forgetting to post here when I update my current Teen Wolf fic. It's up to five chapters now.

Here's the info for the entire fic as a refresher:
Hanging On (You're All That's Left To Hold On To) (18177 words) by vMures
Chapters: 5/?
Fandom: Teen Wolf (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Peter Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Bobby Finstock/Sheriff Stilinski
Characters: Stiles Stilinski, Bobby Finstock, Sheriff Stilinski, Peter Hale
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Post-Nogitsune, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Fox Stiles Stilinski, Awesome Bobby Finstock, Angst with a Happy Ending, Suicidal Thoughts, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Recovery, Bad Friend Scott McCall (Teen Wolf), Spark Stiles Stilinski, Good Peter Hale
Summary:

The Stilinskis find themselves struggling in the aftermath of the Nogitsune; sometimes help comes from the most unlikeliest of places.

And for the individual chapter updates:

Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5

I've also signed up for the Every Fandom Reverse Bang, and I'll try to remember to let folks know when that goes live (posting will be in January of next year).

Outside of writing, I'm living a pretty quiet life right now. Like others, I'm struggling with the death of RBG, as it makes the world feel even bleaker than it had. But like Stiles in my story, I'm hanging on. It's important to find hope and joy where we can, even when the world feels like there is so very little left in store. Hugs and love to everyone. Somehow we'll get through this, my friends. <3 <3 <3

Was chatting with amejisuto about writing poetry earlier and realized it's been...apparently five years since I've written any.

I'm definitely going to need to change that. :D I had planned to write something short tonight, but only got home about half an hour ago. I ended up going out to dinner with my nephew, then taking him and myself to get groceries (we decided it was best to do it tonight and avoid the Superbowl shoppers tomorrow/Saturday). So I will have to work on new poems later.

However, I have also gotten back into writing fanfic, which is super exciting. The last thing I posted fanfic wise was about a decade ago (and that poor wip is likely to go unfinished sadly). But towards the end of 2019 I got invited to join a fandom friend's pre-reader discord server, and then I joined the Steter Network discord server. And I find myself writing again (they are wonderful enablers).

I wrote a short fic for my dear friend green for Christmas, and I forgot to share it here. It was very much inspired by this rather incestuous feeling Folgers ad and thus could be considered a problematic pairing. So no worries about skipping if that's not to your taste (or if Teen Wolf isn't your fandom).

The Best Part of Waking Up (2706 words) by vMures
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Teen Wolf (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Derek Hale/Peter Hale
Additional Tags: Incest, Alternate Universe - No Hale Fire (Teen Wolf), Mates
Summary:

Derek is determined to surprise his Mate for Christmas.

But it was fabulous to write something, finish it, and publish it. I've got some other ideas kicking around and will be participating in a low-key fic exchange on the Steter Network. So that's exciting. :D

Non spoiler review: it was amazing. Great characterization, heart-felt story lines, tongue in cheek humor, and so many meta jokes that there was no way I caught them all. The animation took a bit of getting used to, and some people may not be able to adjust to some of it. I was worried I'd come out with a migraine, but thankfully my eyes seemed to have adjusted to it by the end and I seem to have avoided the headache. I hope that is the case, because I'd really like to watch this one again to try to catch all the details I missed this go round. Plus it really was that good.

The other thing I saw recently was She-Ra: Princesses of Power, which I ended up binge watching on New Years Eve. It was a lot of fun. I have fond (though incredibly fuzzy) memories of the original. Thankfully the fuzziness of my memories of the original series made it very easy to enjoy the reboot. All the nostalgia, but no "oh my gods they changed 'x'" rages. Plus I'm pretty sure this version has a much stronger plot (which isn't hard, the original was basically a half-hour toy commercial with a thin veneer of plot). I really enjoyed how diverse the princesses were in personality and body type, and the coding of the characters' sexuality and gender is incredibly open and fluid. It was definitely a fun watch and I hope they continue in the same vein for season 2.

Several of my friend's/circle are doing the Snowflake Challenge this year. The responses to this daily challenge, particularly to the Day 5 challenge, specifically sperrywink's,response got me thinking about my own fannish origin story. So I decided that even if I did none of the other day's of the challenge I would like to do this one. ( Challenge and response placed under a cut for length )

As a child one of my favorite shows was Reading Rainbow. Not only did you get introduced to cool books, you also got to go on cool virtual field trips that explored themes also explored in the books. It was a show about the power of dreams, the power of knowledge, and the power of books. In 2012, LeVar Burton re-created Reading Rainbow as a mobile app. Now he and his crew are working to bring the series back to full life as a web based series accessible to anyone with an internet connection, and to bring it into classrooms complete with teaching supplements (all offered to schools for free). They put together a Kickstarter campaign to fund the program. Apparently I'm not the only one who wants to see this show continue, because within 11 hours they surpassed the initial goal of $1,000,000. They have since managed to pass the $2,000,000 mark in the second day of the campaign.

This was the show that truly taught me about diversity, about being myself, about dreaming, and so much more. This was the show that told me that it was okay to find comfort in books. I remember being so excited about Star Trek: the Next Generation because not only was it a new Star Trek series, it had the guy from Reading Rainbow. I'm going to go have happy nostalgia feels and be content to know that another generation will have the chance to know that they can go anywhere and be anything.

So I'm ridiculously bad at resting, especially just lounging around and watching something. It sets all kinds of brain demons off. This is probably why I don't actually watch many things, and that when I do watch things I tend to do other things at the same time. But since I am home sick and have very few concentration spoons I am working on besting this set of brain demons.

So far I have watched:

The premier episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. It was just as fun as I had hoped and keeps to the tone and continuity of the Marvel movie 'verse nicely. Plus I just adore Coulson. I've got a serious competence kink. :) I will definitely be watching this on a weekly basis.

The pilot of Sleepy Hollow. I've been seeing a lot of things about this over on tumblr. So I thought I'd check it out. It's an intriguing premise and I love the casting. I'm going to watch the second episode now.

It's really too bad that Pacific Rim isn't out yet, because I'm very much in the mood to see that again. Yesterday I watched a documentary on Scientology, and Hot Coffee which is a fascinating look at the Leibeck v. McDonald's case, the litigation reform movement, and media spin of cases. Turns out that the popular understanding of the case is pretty wrong.

Not sure what I'm going to watch next. May switch over to reading fanfic for a while if I have the concentration spoons.

So I recently discovered the podcast series Welcome to Nightvale (all episodes available for free). I listened to the first two episodes on my way home yesterday, and the third and fourth on my way home today. It is a delightfully odd and creepy show, with wry humor and interesting music (otherwise known as "the weather" on the show). The narrator is the cool, and calm Cecil, who is madly in love with the visiting scientist, Carlos (or at least Carlos's perfect hair). But what made me rewind episode three and practically squee with delight was that Cecil also has Lyme disease! Making this the first fictional character that I have encountered who has Lyme disease. He mentions it when discussing the arrival in town of a creeping fear. He mentions that he has been paralyzed and afraid to speak, for fear that they may be his last words and quickly follows this report with an "I'm also battling Lyme." This made me laugh quite a bit because this sort of anxiety has been a common experience for me.

I'm going to need some Night Vale icons, clearly. :D

First drafts of both papers are in. I have comments back for one and should be getting the other back this week. Revisions will start tomorrow or Tuesday (tomorrow is going to be a busy day).

My plans for summer and fall are now officially worked out. The company I will be interning with this summer also wants me for fall. This is okay with the school so long as the two experiences are substantially different. So I'll do ediscovery and privacy research and work this summer, and work with their trial consulting team on litigation matters in the fall. I'm very excited.

I am excited and nervous to be moving again. I fell in love with the greater D.C. area and am looking forward to getting to hang out more with some of my favorite dreamwidth friends who live in that area. I am also sad to be leaving Vermont, which I have come to love over the years. I will get to visit the area fairly frequently since I have to continue seeing my doctor, and will also be up to visit my heart family. But it is always strange leaving a place behind. Even those places that we know are only temporary homes work their way into our blood and souls. Vermont's granite mountains, verdant fields, and rich farm air have offered me much peace and healing. I know I will carry it with me, just as I carry the bayous of my childhood and adolescence, the deserts of my earliest years, the dusty roads and palms of my late twenties, and the pine forested mountains I wandered in between.

I took a couple of days off this weekend, caught up on fanfic and had my own Dr. Who marathon. Dr. Who and Star Trek are perhaps my oldest fandoms, as those were the shows my Dad introduced us to growing up. They were among the first "grown up" shows I remember watching, and my Dad's enthusiasm was catching. I've been hooked ever since. I have rarely had the opportunity to watch classic Dr. Who in episode order, since we were limited to what our local PBS station was showing. My experience of modern Who has been similar in that I've only had the opportunity to see episodes here and there. But with Netflix streaming I have the opportunity to watch it from the beginning, a slightly daunting goal since there are 6 seasons available for streaming (the 7th currently being shown on BBCA).

So late last week I started my endeavor. Again, this is modern who (2005/6) not classic, but one day I'd like to tackle those seasons as well. I loved the first season. I don't think Christopher Eccleson gets enough credit for his stint as the doctor. He wasn't particularly interested in the part, and only took the role as a favor to Russel Davies who was working hard to get the series back on the air. But he does a phenomenal job. I have made into the first few episodes of season two as well. David Tennant is also amazing. I am constantly reminded of just how powerful a series Dr. Who is. It is full of passion, humanity, family, terrors and humor. It was also great fun to see characters that I know from either classic Who (Sarah Jane and K-9) or Torchwood (Gwen, Tosh, Jack). I finally had to break as I can only watch so much television all in one go. But damn I love this show. :)

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was delightful. I'm not sure I would recommend it for those who are not necessarily fantasy/adventure fans, or Tolkien fans. But if you are a fan of either, particularly a fan of Tolkien it is a wonderful movie and a fabulous adaptation. The pacing may feel a little slow in places to some, but it captures the long boring stretches of traveling that often occur on such a long journey. I found the pacing to be just right, with wonderful visuals and details from the story and tie ins to the larger Tolkien universe. It is clearly a work of love, a movie made by fans and for fans.

So my dear friend and fabulous writer, paganaidd is now on dreamwidth. Not only does she write some interesting stuff on paganism and animism, but she also writes fabulous fanfic. She's going to be re-posting her long, well-researched and well-plotted Harry Potter AU Digging for the Bones as well as meta posts containing longer author's notes and head-canon for the story. It is a dark, angsty story but it is one that I feel more accurately examines the darker elements of Harry Potter (child abuse, PTSD, etc). She's an EMT and has a lot of social work experience. So this story and her Memories series, which deals with the future of the Harry Potter characters, are well grounded and handled trauma and related issues realistically rather than glossy over them. Memories has pretty much become my personal canon in regard to the epilogue. :)

She's written in other fandoms as well and all of her stuff is great. A full list of her stories can be found here. If you like long, plotty, well-written stories check them out, and maybe subscribe to her journal. :)