dragojustine | So many cobwebs to clean out!

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So many cobwebs to clean out!

So. I went away due to law school, and I stayed away for too long. And then when I realized I needed to find an online community again, I found one that ended up being really psychologically not healthy for me. And so here I am, I guess, going… take me back? Please?

1. What can I be watching/obsessing about that has a good fandom right now?

2. Where is the action? Lots of things I liked are dead now and I’m just feeling a little bit… lost. Like, Sweet Charity is dead- where are the actions now? Are kinkmemes still a thing? I don’t even.

3. Is it possible to be all fannishly participatory on DW/LJ/AO3 alone, or am I now required to have a tumblr? Or is it something else entirely that I am too old and stupid now to know about?

4. Fandom specific
a. Oh my god did I have Strong Feelings about IM3. I'm weeks too late, but... it didn't leave much room for the Avengers fandom to breathe, did it?
b. My Little Ponies: This is a thing, right? I love the art on equestriadaily, but are there specific coms or people I should be following here for MLP?
c. Who are the big name people I should be reading for Game of Thrones, and/or where are the best recs?
d. Does anybody other than me care about The Borgias?

I feel so lost. It’s like when I first discovered fandom proper and have no idea how the hell to start, but now it’s sad because I used to. I will basically never have the time again that I did before but I am worse without a lot of those fannish habits so I need to figure out new ones I do have time for.

So... I got two cats. And graduated law school. And got married. In that order. Now I'm studying for the bar and there are some major medical things coming up and then I start my Big Girl Job.

The Big Girl Job is terrifying and I really want to just start it already, rather than worrying about my ability to be fit in/be taken seriously/handle the workload, but there has to be this weird three month limbo period before I can do that. And I guess I'm technically a newlywed but it doesn't feel any different than living in sin but maybe it will any day now. And the aforementioned looming medical stuff. And, you know, the bar.

The result of all this is that I feel a little bit like Wile E Coyote right in that moment between stepping off the cliff and looking down. Between two months ago (when I was a single law student) and three months from now (when I will be a married associate) my life is changing completely and totally in every single dimension in ways that I can't entirely be confident I can handle and I would very very much like to skip this scary transition bit and skip to the new status quo, please.

The wedding was good, though. Everything about the wedding was good. Except for my grandmother trying to take naked pictures of me- could have done without that. But it felt very right and like everything I hoped for and like a ridiculous crazy experience I'll remember with my best friend and like a solid foundation and Big Life Transition. Which may be why the current feeling that nothing has changed is a bit unsettling.

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I'm loving Hannibal, it has a fandom that I only interact with peripherally, person of interest has good writers, um.... I haven't had much time for fandom. :-(

>I haven't had much time for fandom. :-(

I hear you...

Hi sweetie! Great to see you. Of course we will take you back.

Tumblr is hopping, but not necessary. I always boggle at people who say LJ or DW is dead. Not dead at all from my vantage point.

IM3 is very active. It didnt affect fandom's breathing room at all, as far as I can see. There are tons of comms for any pairing you want.

Teen Wolf is still the new shiny. There is also a lot of interest in Hannibal on my F list.

SPN is NOT DEAD. Nor is Vampire Diaries or Breaking Bad. Hocky RPF seems to be a big deal on my f list as well. Elementary is HUGE. Also Sherlock BBC is still very big.

There are also tons of small fandoms where AO3 is the best place to find them.

I'm still happy in closed canons. SG1, Due South, Leverage. Am watching Burn Notice but not really reading fanfic.

Avengers and all associated Marvel fandoms are going strong.

You'll find a lot to enjoy. I am happy to help you find people to follow. Just read your Network for a while and you'll know what to focus on.

Very good to see you.

ETA: Oh yeah, Person of Interest is still definitely A THING.

Congratulations on your marriage! And your shiny law persona! *confetti*

Edited 2013-06-22 23:18 (UTC)

Oooh, Teen Wolf? I have seen those words together a few times since I fired up DW today... may have to look into it.

Sherlock BBC! That could work too.

I kind of feel like I should thank you personally for making sure no one forgets SG-1. And you wrote more Hometown Boy! That will have to be my treat for after I finish criminal procedure.

Nice to see you too.

Sherlock BBC kind of writes its own fanfic for you. Especially if you ever see the two leads in any interview. Watching Graham Norton show Martin Freeman pictures of Sherlock fanart was priceless. And really, those two do not hold back on the bromance in the series. It's quite touching.

I am stoked to see you back! I have been bouncing all about myself.

Now for the more important stuff - married! law degree! Congratulations! You will kick that bar's ass. You had my dying at Grandma and the please no naked me photos. Looking forward to seeing more from you in whatever form works best for you. I did notice you popping stuff up on A03 :)

You are still around! Yaay! It makes me so happy when Stargate people are still around. And still loving Stargate, even if you're bouncing otherwise.

And thank you much! Though you'd think "Grandma, put the camera down, I'm naked!" would have stopped her. Especially since I wasn't actually naked, I was in fancy wedding lingerie, garters and all, which is definitely worse than naked for Grandma-picture-taking-purposes. But the woman would not be deterred.

Hi!

princessofgeeks sent me - IM3 is definitely a thing! I'm not in the fandom, but I can point at

comicstore_news, and from there you'll find lots of people. There've been a few big bangs recently, from what I've been linking.

netgirl_y2k has some great Game of Thrones fic. And you definitely don't need to be on Tumblr, and LJ/DW is definitely not dying, despite what people say.

Ooooh yaay recs thank you.

Unsolicited advice: put your time and emotional energy into your marriage while you have the chance. Six months from now will NOT be the time to be sorting out "Why don't you ever take the trash out?"

Hi! It's so good to see you again, and WOW, congrats on all your Things!

I wish Suits had more good fic writers, because then you could laugh at all the things canon gets wrong about lawyers. :D (The boys are VERY pretty and slashable.)

I'm mostly reading Teen Wolf and any flavor of Marvel Steve/Tony fics—both fandoms still going strong. The DW and LJ versions of cap_ironman are both lovely, lovely communities. Agree with Princess that there are excellent writers in Person of Interest.

Can't stand Tumblr—most of the fic ends up on AO3 eventually anyway. Other than DW, I spend a lot of time on AO3. For any fandom/pairing I become interested in, I click on the tag for that, then on the right, sort by Kudos, click the Complete Only box, then sort and filter. You quickly get the fandom favorites that way. (And you may figure out some people to stalk back on DW/LJ that way, too, but I haven't bothered.) Once I get through the best, I go back to checking for new stuff by date and complete only. This should keep you up to your earlobes in fic until Big Girl Job! Fanfic is a lovely opiate.

Pretty boys getting things wrong about the law? That's always fun.

And another vote for Teen Wolf..

I'm really happy to know most of the fic ends up on AO3. It's way more pleasant to read that way. I shall just have to figure out how to make friends there in addition to just read.

You can definitely comment on AO3, but it doesn't lend itself as well to forming conversations and friendships as well as LJ/DW, IMO. It's great for finding people to follow, but I still recommend journals and comms as the best way to interact with people.

Everyone feels a bit like this right now, because fandom is changing, I think. But as people upthread are saying there are still a lot of us LJ/DW, and the fic is almost all on AO3 and you can subscribe to fandoms (and comment and chat in the comments!) and yes, there are kinkmemes - Person of Interest has one, I'm just saying (http://meme-of-interest.dreamwidth.org/) and the Tumblr might actually work for you to give you a regular dose of shiny and/or pretty. It's just not a great place to CONNECT but its a great place to SPLASH AROUND.

Thank you! So helpful.

Hello! You don't know me, but

princessofgeeks sent me to pimp you. *g*

Everything Avengers-related is going strong, Teen Wolf is awesome, Hannibal gets lots of posts on my DWcircle, and White Collar has a thriving (for LJ/DW these days) fandom. Sherlock BBC seems a tad quiet right now but should fire up once the next series airs in the U.S. My personal pitch is for Justified, the best-written thing on TV right now, imo.

As for Tumblr, I spent an hour the other day just trying to make a meme I created show up in my feed, and never did get it to work. I swear to God if fandom truly goes there, I quit. Ptui.

And another for Teen Wolf! I feel like I'm running some kind of contest *g*

Oooh, good to hear about Justified. That was on my maybe-if-I-see-fandom list.

I am not sure I can claim there's a big fandom for Justified, but there ought to be! The level of violence and narrative cynicism is not to everyone's taste, but many of us who give it a look see are hooked by the brilliant, unexpected twists and compelling characters. And bright, original dialogue.

As Mementis said, fandom is definitely having a Werewolf Moment. LOL.

Congrats on both the graduation and the marriage!

IM3 has produced some great Pepper and Tony/Pepper fic, and the stuff leaking about Captain America: Winter Soldier is FULL OF SQUEE, so Avengers is still going strong. Orphan Black (the first season - only 10 episodes - just aired on BBC America), Teen Wolf and Elementary are the things I'm enjoying and seeing a lot of on my flist, though for the former I don't really participate in the fandom. There's also lots of talk about Hannibal and Person of Interest, though I don't watch those. The Good Wife is well worth watching, though possibly as a lawyer you wouldn't think so. I enjoyed Arrow, which actually made me like Oliver Queen, and developed some really great momentum in the second half of the season. And Dan Harmon has returned to Community for season 5 so who knows what's going to happen there.

I like a lot of things about Tumblr, but it's not great for interaction. You can probably manage without it - lots of people do.

Yeah, that was my problem with Tumblr. It seems like AO3=good for fic, bad for making friends, and Tumblr=good for shiny, bad for making friends. I shall just have to figure it out, I think.

So what I'm getting is *everybody* loves Teen Wolf. Wow.

*raises hand*

everybody but meeeeee!

It's so not my thing.

not my thing either. I check out the pretty pictures I am linked to, but beyond that, I can't figure it out LOL

Here via

princessofgeeks. :o)

Current active fandoms I'd recommend where canon is also good and ongoing: Avengers, Elementary, Person of Interest

Current active fandoms with some excellent fic but canon is YMMV: BBC Sherlock, Teen Wolf, X-Men First Class

Two DW people worth checking out re: fannish stuff:

copperbadge (Avengers, comics, Radio Free Monday, etc.) &

lettered ('Responsible Science' series, amazing meta).

One comm ~~to rule them all~~ worth subscribing to to get a better sense yourself where the action's currently at on Dreamwidth:

metanews ("a panfandom meta newsletter").

And for good measure, some fics you may have missed if you've been out of the loop for a while that I can't recommend highly enough:

-

rainjoyswriting: All the Other Ghosts; Glee superhero AU;

stultiloquentia's enthusiastic rec here; multiple formats available (epub / pdf | WIP podfic | author's LJ memories)

---> there are fans writing related fic & fanartists creating fanart for this 'verse; it starts a bit slow and keeps getting better and better and going deeper and deeper; the WIP sequel even includes an Iliad-inspired subplot that made my classics-loving heart half-expire with everything yes.

-

scifigrl47: In Which Tony Stark Builds Himself Some Friends (But His Family Was Assigned by Nick Fury); Avengers

-

americanjedi: Wee Doctor; BBC Sherlock

Oooh, shiny recs! I love the scifigrl47 one- some of the only fic I read while on hiatus. The superhero AU is promising...

Thank you so much, that's plenty to get started on!

:o)

Welcome back to fandom, which will be lucky to have you working anyway you decide to settle down. Also, best of luck on riding the calm before the storm, best of luck on the challenges for work, and congratulations on your wedding.
Also here via princessofgeeks, I can second comments above. This mirrors the activity that I notice on my flist. All the good stuff I've been getting into lately has been from reccies here on DW, from live journal, or reading good writers on AO3--I follow them around into fandoms new to me. Also, I read those writers' bookmarked stories on AO3, even if I don't know the fandom, that's a great way to find good stuff. Don't have time to bother with tumblr, though I may follow a reccie link to the pretty pix. (Hockey RPF is prone to this.)
Highly rec the series noted by jjhunter, I love stories by scifigrl47.
More generally there's a ton of fic on Teen Wolf and Supernatural and various of the Sherlocks, lots of Avengers-associated stuff like Thor or Hulk or Ironman. I also find lots of Avengers stories about the characters Darcy and stories about Clint/Coulson tend to be pretty darn good, as a general rule. More of them I think, and thus wider quality range, on Steve-centric fics, but the good ones are really good.
I also read china_shop's stuff, whatever fandom she decides to grace, including due South and White Collar. Same name here on DW, where she is looking at Haven now?
I also read reccies, any fandom, from movies_michelle here on DW, also on live journal. She's been snowed under of late by work, but look at her awesome back entries.
I also love vid recs and story recs from giandujakis. Her vids here, http://giandujakiss.com/
Personal bias here, I happen to like the high caliber of writers I find working from movie or comics on "The Losers", these days. Anything by the folks piling in on this Bang will probably be fun to read.
http://ante-up-losers.dreamwidth.org/

Edited 2013-06-23 04:50 (UTC)

Clint/Coulson is a happy place for me, so I'm glad to hear it :)

Thanks so much!

I have an avengers tag for recs which is mostly clint/coulson and clint/natasha.

Ooooh I shall check out the tag.

Here via

princessofgeeks to rec a couple of things to you.

If you are looking for someone who follows both Borgias and (I think) Game of Thrones, I suggest

selenek. She writes great reviews (I frequently read her reviews for things I don't even watch.) She gives good meta too.

Show wise I can't recommend Orphan Black highly enough.
Elementary is doing something really well with it's characters - lead and secondary especially.
Haven is good genre, especially once you get the first 8 or so episodes under your belt.

I rarely find myself in large fandoms these days, but I see you have plenty of recs from those who do, so you have lots of choices.

Thank you much!

another person who links to a bunch of interesting stuff is

acari. also

wneleh follows how fandom is mentioned in the mainstream media.

Congrats on all your new life adventures!

I'm in a situation atm where I'm finding it hard to have the time I used to engage in fandom, but I'm finding that tumblr is actually really great for that. It's just a series of images that flow past my eyes; it doesn't feel like something I have to keep up with. It's very short-form. The fandoms on there that are big right now are Hannibal, The Hobbit, Sherlock, Teen Wolf, and Game of Thrones.

Thank you!

Oh my lord, everyone has it covered, so: HI HI HI!! :D Personally, I've been eaten alive by Teen Wolf along with a lot of other people - but, then, I had a bulletproof werewolf kink before they went and made a whole fandom out of it, so it's more surprising I resisted it for any length of time at all. Avengers seems to be the second most read for me lately, but it's Hannibal recaps I eagerly await each week (well, was, as it just ended season 1 on a doozy of a note).

Teen Wolf has writing of a very erratic quality and generally terrible CGI, but the characters are fascinating and the actors are good to downright amazing. Plus, werewolves! The fannish output is prolific, to put it mildly, and quality is all over the board. Hannibal has stellar writing and stellar acting and a fanbase that's split between gleeful pitch black humor ("It's a cooking show!") and strangely oblivious ("Hannibal is redeemable! Will can save him!"). The first half of the fandom spends a lot of time laughing at a) the show, and b) the second half of the fandom. Or just eating popcorn and watching their increasingly desperate justifications for Hannibal's behavior. The fic is a minor note, overall - there may be an increase now that it's between seasons, but I suspect the writing is so very good, we're just not feeling the drive to fill in a lot of plot holes. The art/image/gifset production, however, has been quite enjoyable.

Tumblr has very shiny things, but its user interface is horrific and the user base is... ah... an entity unto itself. I do love the flood of visual fanart that it has produced, but I feel a good decade and a half (if not two) out of step with the general community. Your mileage may vary, but it tends to be, if not explosive in atmosphere, then at least a bit of a roller coaster. It's very lurkable, though, and an account can be useful.

Big note: if you do end up following links to Tumblr, you'll at least need a couple tricks. The main one is to know that you can add "/mobile" to the end of a URL for the mobile version of a page, and the other is the source of a couple bookmarklets, primarily "Zap Style Sheets", which works where the /mobile trick doesn't. (I also use Zap Images to eliminate moving gifs in the sidebar that you can't scroll past, just because I find them distracting.) Some of the personal page font size/color choices are, well, I'm honestly not sure how they're legible to anyone, but you do have experience with law textbooks, so you may have an advantage in that area. :P

(How did this get so long already?)

Pinboard is bookmarking central at the moment, if you weren't around for that (it's all fuzzy now...), but I think that covers it. HI HI HI!!

Edited (finishing sentences is a good thing) 2013-06-24 00:32 (UTC)

*waves* Saw a link here and adding you to my circle -- I think the comments above have basically covered your questions, but I'm generally in favor of expanding/ keeping alive fannish conversation on Dreamwidth, and I'm a Game of Thrones fan.

ETA: redacted -- ahh, my bad, I accidentally recced somebody whose journal is locked and so I'm erasing the comment from this post but I did link them to this post so they know you are looking <3

In any case, welcome back!

Edited 2013-06-28 14:58 (UTC)

I'm the person she accidentally recced and I apologise for my obsessively locked posts on LJ/DW. I do have a bunch of ASOIAF fic on AO3 and I'm happy to add you to my circle/flist if you'd like to read my ~~out-of-date ranting~~ about The Borgias. I was doing very well with reviews for the first series of each show, but I'm afraid I sort of dropped off after a while (and I still haven't finished the final series of Borgias, mostly owing to more shark-jumping than I can shake a stick at).

Oh, good, I was pretty sure you wouldn't mind, I just didn't want to link to stuff you didn't want shared <3 I still haven't gotten past season 1 of the Borgias so I couldn't remember if you were current with it!

Oh hi! And yaay GoT people!

Here via

jjhunter's link and I'm in a similar boat. I see some living and active tumblr fandoms-- SPN, Sherlock, Elementary, Animorphs, Tamora Pierce's Tortall universe, Young Wizards-- but none of them interest me except Animorphs.

I believe there's fanac surrounding all aspects of the Marvel Movieverse, but I don't know where to link you. It definitely does exist on tumblr...

Also on tumblr is justadram, whom you might follow for Game of Thrones and The Borgias. There is fic there for ASOIAF/AGOT.

If fandom is your fandom and you're determined to stick with long meta on journaling sites,

metanews posts a linkspam every Wednesday.

If I could and if you seemed likely to be interested, I'd try to get you into my fandoms, which would partly solve the problem of my fandoms being dead or small. ;)

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So many cobwebs to clean out!

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oh, and....

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