#my answers got LONG but i cannot help it. i am a verbose little creature

[astriiformes]

I was tagged by @tam--lin in this hyperspecific tumblr-corner niche tag meme (which is delightful, honestly), so here’s my answers:

What sort of music were you into circa age 12?

Tragically, at the age of twelve I had not yet developed a taste in music, because all I was ever exposed to was the excruciatingly bland contemporary Christian station that was the only music my mother ever had on in the car and one (1) classic rock road trip playlist my dad, who does have an interesting taste in music but who never controlled the radio, created back when he was in college and still had the cassettes for. 

That said, of the classic rock road trip songs, I was most excited about the songs Magic Power by Triumph and Carry on Wayward Son by Kansas, and I particularly stand by the latter as a jam

Favorite fantasy or sci-fi thing media released in the last 5 years:

Last five years I might have to go with the Aerois campaign of the D&D stream High Rollers. I have assorted Critical Role feelings as well (although technically they started their first stream pre-2015 anyways) but I think Aerois might edge it out for me, personally

Favorite pair of boots:

So Groovebags doesn’t sell the exact model I own anymore (they’ve lasted me coming up on two years, which is a testament to them not exclusively being a fashion statement), but I have a variation on this style of boots that displays the subducting plate boundary a little more prominently that I bought on a big sale when I was in need of some good waterproof shoes. They’ve been worth every penny, especially since starting work at the science museum where having a pair of Ms. Frizzle-esque boots just adds to my science educator cred. I absolutely plan on replacing them with another equally ostentatious science design from them (they have SO MANY) when the plate boundary ones die, especially since they do unisex sizing which I, a transmasc person with very small feet, appreciate deeply

Song you blare loudly, windows-down, that confuses fellow drivers:

Officially, I don’t think I’ve ever done this, but emotionally it’s probably “Everybody Hates Elves” by Kari Maaren

A thing you don’t understand about US dating culture:

I don’t even know if I can pick one thing, I can conceptualize romance so poorly that I can barely even wrap my mind around the idea that people go on dates and that it’s at all different than just hanging out with something, much less zero in on some of the other things that confuse me.

Vests, y/n:

I have been living the vest appreciation life ever since my junior year of high school and I don’t intend to stop. In this household, we look like Marty McFly or bust.

Underrated musical artist you think we should listen to:

I Fight Dragons! I rarely hear people talk about them (other than people who I know I got into them) but they’ve been one of my favorite bands also since my junior year of high school and I’m just as into their new stuff as I was their discography then

You have to give up one forever: oceans or mountains. (Personally. You do not affect the world in any way.)

This choice hurts me but I know in my soul I gotta say oceans. The Rockies in particular stole my heart and haven’t let go. Moving away from Colorado to someplace flatter has been the first time I’ve really understood longing for another landscape.

Unpopular food opinion:

Black licorice is delicious and you’re all cowards. And I don’t just mean the normal kind, which I do love, but also the extra powerful salmiak stuff

Favorite museum:

I have a huge soft spot for the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and the little zoological and paleontological museums at the university I went to in Montana because I volunteered in collections at all of them. DMNS in particular was when I was in high school, so it was pretty formative (and it’s also just a great museum!)

I also love OMSI, in Oregon, which my grandpa would take me and my sister to every time we visited, and the AMNH in New York which I snuck down to several times while spending my freshman year at NYU. And the one bright spot in the disastrous abroad trip to Florence that semester was seeing the Museo Galileo, which is not one of the big names on the block but if you’ve ever wanted to see actual Renaissance-era scientific instruments or uhhhhhhh [throws dart at wall] Galileo’s mummified finger (no, really) it’s your place

Also, different kind of museum, but can I say the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff? I loved the Doctor Who Experience, and Cardiff

How many swords have you owned in your life:

Tragically the only fencing gear I’ve ever used was rented, although I did get to at least live the aesthetic of having a ton of them lying around the apartment I shared with the college fencing club captain in Montana. Other than that, the little foam sword I used for elementary school Shakespeare performances as Hamlet and MacDuff is all I’ve got for you, unless my fancy combat-grade Ultrasaber counts since someday when things exist again I’m going to use it in the local Saber Guild (lightsaber stage combat!) chapter

Most obscure word you know in a foreign language you don’t speak:

The tricky thing here is the definition of “don’t speak” because dabbling in language learning is sort of my thing (in phases, at least). I don’t have much fluency in anything other than English though, so even though it’s the language I’ve been studying most seriously as of late my pick has to be “iùl-oidche,” which is a poetic name for a navigational star in Gaelic

Dream cosplay(s):

This is...... a very long list. 

I’m technically actively working on Quill from High Rollers already but that one involves so much wild technical expertise that it still feels out there. Same for the fact that I’ve already done Percy de Rolo (from Critical Role) once, but the  entirely-reworked version of it I actually want to pull off when I have better sewing skills and more money counts as a dream cosplay.

Other than that.... every single OT Luke Skywalker, but especially his X-Wing pilot outfit and his throne room one with the yellow jacket (and also Hoth, because I live in Minnesota and it would be funny), as well as Legolas, Fjord from Critical Role, and Milo Thatch from A:tLE

(In true cosplayer fashion. Too many things)

Would you shoot a man to save public libraries, y/n:

.....it goes very against my character but like. If I gave the man an impassioned, Luke Skywalker-style speech about what he should do to save them and he didn’t use his powers for good. All bets are off.