#(man. the last thing i wrote on there was in 2015 aka the worst period of my life)

[tesl8n]

I've always felt like I couldn't really be a furry because I'm not a visual artist, which limits how much I can actually engage with having a fursona. Like, if I can't do art of my fursona, what does "being a furry" rly mean?

My artistic mediums are code (not software, but the actual code behind it) and prose. Code doesn't translate to a consumable art form, though, and besides, how do you express non-comp sci artistry through an abstract art form like code anyway? Prose is more doable, but to write a whole story about a fursona feels like too much commitment, and I'm not sure I have a story to tell there anyway.

But I had a realization somewhat recently. Furries don't usually create full blown comics of their fursonas, they just create one off pieces of art. They aren't telling a story, they're designing a character and maybe giving them some lore and drawing them in situations. The prose equivalent is not writing a full story, it's writing a character description and some out of context chapters.

Last month I commissioned an artist on here to design and draw some art of some fursona concepts. Gave them an idea of what her traits might be, but mostly left it up to them to design everything. It's been so exciting to watch it come together, and I really like what they did with my prompt. They posted the final piece yesterday, and it looks so so good.

But she doesn't, currently, feel like my character. I had very little hand in making her, she almost entirely came from this other person's brain. And I don't think I have the skills or interest to change that as far as how she looks goes.

So, I think I'm gonna change that. Starting tomorrow, I'ma restart Lobsters On Opium to post some doodles or chapters about Fei, the robot catgirl, with no commitment to building a story or anything like that. I think it'll be fun, and I've got a few ideas for it. So, look forward to that, and to reading my writing for the first time in 8 years :3

[justanotherwannabeclassic]

The ever wonderful @unfolded73​ made a really interesting post about her fandom lineage and growth over the years, and it had me thinking about my roots in fandom. And because I’ve recently gained a fair number of followers due to my current interests, I think it’s fair to show the lot of you the history of how I became the fan I am today.

2005-2009: Otherwise known as my high school years, but this was the period where I first flung myself into fandom. I created my own fanfiction.net account, as well as a LJ, and started writing fic and participating in forums. Looking back at that FF.N account (and, no, I am not sharing), there are a smattering of fandoms I participated in, but the following are highlights for me:

Harry Potter: Like many others my age, I consider this the first fandom in which I really invested myself in. I made t-shirts and went to the midnight releases, and I appeared in the local news twice! I mostly wrote for the HarryxHermione (Harmony, I think?) ship, and my secondary ships were DracoxGinny and RonxLuna. In short, I was basically a Portkey.Org fan through and through. This was the fandom that introduced me to shipping wars, and the knowledge that sometimes you really loathe the direction canon goes. Interestingly enough, as an adult, I am less hot on HarryxHermione as a ship, and more on Team Nobody Marries Their High School Love. 

Avatar the Last Airbender: God, I shipped Zutara so hard. They were such a good thematic pair with an interesting story, and...yeah. I actually still read Zutara fanfiction. There’s honestly a lot of good ships out there. 

Justice League Unlimited: I was such a big fan of the DCAU, and I credit JLU with being the property to get me into comic books. I shipped BatmanxWonder Woman from the show (Now WonderBat), though I wrote for a variety of other ships ships.

DC Comics: From JLU, I dived into the world of reading comics. I mostly tended toward DC Comics. Not only was I mostly drawn to the characters with whom I was familiar, but I loved the history and legacy of DC at the time. Because of this, I was drawn to the Wolfman/Perez Titans as well as Johns’ Titans run. I also became a huge Hal Jordan fan. I wrote a little bit of fic for various Titans ships. 

Marvel: I’m not a huge fan of Marvel at this period. My introduction to the comics comes in the form of me reading Young Avengers, Spider-Man, and Captain America. I became a big fan of Kate Bishop and Sharon Carter. Civil War made me hate Iron Man, and I still wouldn’t say I liked him until Endgame. I stopped reading Spider-Man after OMD aka the worst story ever. 

2009-2010: I start college, and binge The West Wing a lot. I write a fair bit about JoshxDonna. Yeah, I know late to the game. But guess what? I finally shipped an endgame canon couple! This was new to me. 

2011-2014: I didn’t write fic during this period, because I was incredibly busy with both undergrad/grad school/internships. But I did involve myself in fandoms. I hung out a lot in Glee spaces, until it became too much for me in the latter seasons. I follow along with Once Upon a Time. I keep up to date with the goings-on of Marvel and DC Comics. I rage against the Nu52. I complain about everything the MCU gets wrong. My boyfriend teases me for it, but is infinitely patient when I list all the things they get wrong. We don’t talk about Green Lantern. :(

2015-2018: 2015 was a big year for me. I married the love of my life. I earned a Master’s Degree. My husband and I moved states away to begin our new life together...and I was unemployed for 5 months. During this time, while I applied to jobs, I began binging a lot of television, and I caught up with Once Upon a Time. Because I had a lot of free time, I delved into writing Captain Swan fanfiction. OUAT became my main fandom focus, and I wrote a lot of stuff I’m proud of, but most importantly, I met some great people. 

2019: I lost my muse for Captain Swan and OUAT. I bought a house. In April, I went to see Avengers: Endgame because being caught up with pop culture, and because my husband was hyped. We both walked out salty af, and suddenly 14 years of comic salt let out. I am now a salty comics blog/lowkey a Sharon Carter fanblog, because I’m channeling younger!me whose introduction to Marvel was Brunbaker’s run on Captain America. I’ve also started writing Staron fanfic. I feel like I’ve gone full circle.