R'hllor, Give Us Light

Fanfiction:

Write for The Lion King
Finish one of my old B/A WIPs
Work on, if not finish, my oldest B/A WIP
Complete a fic of any length for the GotG fandom
"All Partial Evil"
Finish my Kastle WIP
One X-Men/BtVS crossover

So, all three of the uncrossed off ones are BtVS - the reason I prioritized the other fandoms is that I wanted my return to Buffy to come through the episode reviews, which come further down on the list. Somewhat pleased about getting all the others done, although only the GotG one qualifies as a one-shot so the rest have really only contributed to the mental catalogue of things I ought to get written.

Original fiction:

Revisit my YA fantasy novel
Clean up and post/publish a couple poems
Complete "Retronym"
Complete the romance novel I started a few years ago
Finish writing the first arc of a comic
Write a 2-5k word story about anything
Camp NaNoWriMo

I knew I wasn't being realistic with this category but it still stings a bit. I'll carry over most of these.

Art and crafting:

Make something for my nephew and/or nieces
Paint on a canvas
Make myself a skirt
Add a dozen items to my Etsy store
Make three finished pieces of digital fan art
Learn a new medium

Woohoo! Check me out, Artist-Craftsperson 2020!

Reading:

Catch up on Squirrel Girl
Binge some classic Marvel
Twenty-four total books
Three of them from authors I've never read before
Reread Lord of the Rings and regularly post discussions on it

And this one was downright easy.

TV and games:

Catch up on Game of Thrones
Finish Lost
Finish The Legend of Korra
Revive my BtVS episode reviews
Complete Untitled Goose Game
Replace my PS2 and use it to finish FFIX

TV goals are easy too, of course, except when I stick something in there like the episode reviews. I only got one done, but I think I'll do better this year.

Other:

Revisit my homebrew 30-day meme
At least one book/movie/comic/TV/fanwork review or meta per month
Make good on my random goodwill meme promises
Revisit my MMO idea

I did the bare minimum on these, tbh, but if not for the meme I might not have bothered with any. Yay lists of goals!

One-Shot Fanfics:

A Time for Wolves (Crossover: Buffyverse/X-Men)
Terra Incognita (Avengers; Rocket)
Emil's Interdimensional Space Adventure (Crossover: The Mandalorian/Jessica Jones)

Fanfic Chapters:

The Leopard Queen (The Lion King)
Chapter One
A Conspiracy of Ravens (Netflix MCU; Frank/Karen)
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Epilogue

Drabbles:

Untitled (BtVS; Willow/Oz)
Untitled (MCU; Tony&Natasha)

Art:
Lion King fan character
Rocket on Contraxia

Episode Reviews:
What's My Line Part 1

Meta/Commentary:

Lady and the Tramp reactions
Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra ramblings
The Once and Future King reactions
The New Mutants reactions

Other:

Fellowship of the Ring Ch. 8 on Doodles and Discourse
Fellowship of the Ring Ch. 9 on Doodles and Discourse

Challenge #1

In your own space, introduce yourself! Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Hello! I'm Kairos. This is the same first challenge as last year, so I'm reusing my post from then.

I'm a failed artist and non-practicing novelist who entered fandom about twelve years ago. For roughly the first half of that, I was all about Buffy, but I later went through major phases with Guardians of the Galaxy and the Netflix MCU, and minor phases with all sorts of things.

At the moment I don't do much writing for, reading of, or engaging with any fandom at all, but it's for reasons that have been good for my offline life, which I don't really talk about publicly. If you want to know more about me you can ask for access to my non-fandom filter.

It is true that I once wrote and illustrated a fic about Buffy and Angel as My Little Ponies. It is true that a friend and I once made a mix tape in support of James Gunn, and handed it to Michael Rooker. It is true that my contribution to any discussion about a film or TV adaptation will probably include "The book was better."

It not true that I wear a tutu to sleep. Where did you even hear that?



Challenge #2

In your own space (or their own space) interact with someone new. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. No need to leave a link for this one, but if you’d like to invite others to join the conversation, please do leave one.

I want this to be in my own space but how do I attract people here so I can interact with them?



Challenge #3: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

In your own space, tell us who, from one of your fandoms, would you most want to have dinner with (or tea, or a random afternoon visit), And why? This could be a creator, an actor, a costumer, a set designer, a director, a character, a composer, anybody! What would you talk about? What are you dying to know? Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Okay, so the first thing that comes to mind, because of where my fan-brain is right now but mostly because it would be hilarious, is Din Djarin. HAVE SOME TEA, MANDO. Come on, all you have to do is TAKE OFF THE HELMET and DRINK THE TEA. Ooh, and one of the robots from Saga, so the great question of HOW DO THEY DRINK THE TEA can finally be answered! Let's round it off with a Dalek, since my husband has been marathoning the original Doctor Who series. Put them all together and it's an instant, very confused fight to the death! If I don't survive my tea party that's just the price to pay.

For a tea party that I would survive, let's go with the (living and dead) self-improvement champion team: Steve Irwin, Marie Kondo, Jordan Peterson, Bob Ross, and Mr. Rogers.

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Which TV shows did you start watching in 2020?
The Mandalorian, The Boys, What We Do in the Shadows, Outlander, His Dark Materials, The Witcher, Community, Beastars, Tiger King. Also started Castlevania and The Promised Neverland but don't intend to continue with either one.

Which TV shows did you let go of in 2020?
Lost, in sort of a forever way, and Game of Thrones. I don't know, maybe someday I'll rewatch the earlier seasons of both, but the endings have me soured on them for at least a few years. Rather similar sentiment toward Legend of Korra, actually. Also a few ended, like The Good Place and Bojack Horseman. And I have no intentions of ever catching up with Supernatural, but in a way I feel like it's become everyone's fandom, you know?

Which TV shows did you mean to get into but didn't in 2020? Why?
Relics and Rarities, again. Watchmen, Lovecraft Country, and everything that was supposed to come out in 2020 but didn't. Haven't finished Agents of SHIELD or Runaways yet, or caught up with American Gods.

Which TV shows do you intend on checking out in 2021?
The Marvel shows on Disney+, and a few shows of varied nature that don't have their premiere date years set yet. Oh and maybe that animated thing with dinosaurs? No, the other one. It might not be out until 2022, I forget.

Which TV show impressed you least in 2020?
I can't think of anything. The ones I said I was letting go of all either ended before 2020, or didn't rate much interest from me in the first place.

Which TV show do you think you might let go of in 2021 unless things significantly improve?
Can't think of anything for this one either. A year ago I was sure I was planning to cancel Netflix; that never happened and at this point I doubt it ever will.

Which TV shows do you think you’ll never let go of no matter how crappy they get?
We're talking distant future here, since the shows on air that have my emotional investment are fairly new and appear to be successful, but I could see myself stubbornly clinging to The Boys or Beastars or What We Do in the Shadows even if quality declined.

Your main fandom of the year?
Wheel of Time, Star Wars/The Mandalorian, Netflix MCU, Gargoyles.

Your favorite film you watched this year?
Soul, Die Hard, The Wind Rises, Knives Out, Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm, The Old Guard, The New Mutants, Lady and the Tramp, Fargo, Back to the Future, Hamilton: an American Musical.

Your favorite book read this year?
The Once and Future King, A Memory of Light, The Odyssey, Rose Point, Because Internet, To Be or Not to Be, Ghostopolis.

Your favorite album or song to listen to this year?
...
....
.....
TOSS A COIN TO YOUR WITCHER
OH VALLEY OF PLENTY
OH VALLEY OF PLENTY

Your favorite TV show(s) of the year?
The Mandalorian, definitely.

Your best new fandom discovery of the year?
In TV, The Boys, Community, and What We Do in the Shadows (and technically The Mandalorian because I didn't start watching until this year. Also those dragons my niece likes, two classic movie franchises I've somehow missed all these years (Die Hard and Back to the Future), and an excellent webcomic, Golden Shrike.

Your fandom that made an unexpected comeback this year?
Redwall! And BtVS, in a sense, thanks to the new Discord server.

Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year?
It doesn't seem right to call Chadwick Boseman's death a "disappointment," but I can't not mention it, either. And then, cancel culture got out of hand. The New Mutants didn't deliver as I'd hoped. Rise of Skywalker just barely got over the extremely low bar set by Last Jedi. I was irked by many aspects of Frozen 2. Also, you know, entertainment being sentenced to indefinite imprisonment or death due to 2020.

Your fandom boyfriend(s) of the year?
Aragorn son of Arathorn, Geralt of Rivia, Din Djarin, Abed Nadir, Troy Barnes, Billy Butcher, Nandor the Relentless, Counselor Jerry, Brain Drain, Sean (literally).

Your fandom girlfriend(s) of the year?
Galadriel, Roach, Cara Dune, the Frog Lady, Peli Motto, Nadja, Kimiko, Ilyana Rasputin, the horrible goose, Counselor Jerry, Doreen Green, Leah and Emily (literally).

Your biggest squee moment of the year?
Same one everyone else had in The Mandalorian. Some of the Disney Investor Day announcements. Some of the cast reunions and extra material for shows that came out of the lockdown (Parks and Rec, Cowboy Bebop, and Good Omens were all winners). Allie Brosh returning from the void to publish a sequel to Hyperbole and a Half. I finally got a Mewtwo and completed my Kanto set.

The most missed of your old fandoms?
It was really nice when movies used to come out and we could, like go see them in theaters.

The fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to?
I've got a few possibilities in mind. Lucifer, Utopia, The Clone Wars for TV shows. I haven't had a chance to see Wonder Woman 1984 or Tenet yet. Apparently I was wrong about playing much M:tG last year, but maybe it can still happen.

Your biggest fan anticipations for the coming year?
The Suicide Squad, WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Black Widow, Hawkeye, new seasons of The Boys, What We Do in the Shadows, Stranger Things, Beastars, and The Mandalorian, man, like, everything? I just hope it feels like it's nonstop and I can't even keep up with everything I want to see.

It's been a year of wolves.

During the first lockdown, there were stories about Denver residents howling at each other every night, just to find some way to connect. It didn't spread to Colorado Springs, but we live in a bordering town full of artists and hippies, who took up the ritual gladly. It waxes and wanes but it's still going on.

In October, taaroko came a-visiting and we took the opportunity to feed and cuddle real-life wolves and foxes at the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center, definitely one of those experiences you remember for a lifetime. Their paws are enormous. They give messy kisses. One was related to the wolf who played Sam in the Twilight movies.

Simon and I bought a sticker there that says "Colorado Needs Wolves," in support of the ballot measure to reintroduce wolves to the state. We won, and although it's still controversial, I believe it will pay off in the long run.

I also bought a jigsaw puzzle there. I love puzzles, enough so that I usually deny myself the pleasure because it inhibits my overall productivity, but after all, it was 2020. The wolf art was cliche but very pretty. It came with a mini-poster and I gave it to my mom when I was done to mail to my great aunt in Florida.

They keep popping up. My dear old favorite shapeshifter Wolfsbane got her live-action debut in The New Mutants. Simon's mum gave him a Folkmanis wolf puppet for his birthday. I made up a story for my nieces about a wolf pup on a magical quest, and I carved a wolf jack o'lantern (which was devoured by deer before I could even light it). There was a beautiful creature at the dog park that could only have been a wolfdog. There was Geralt of Rivia, the White Wolf, and werewolves in What We Do in the Shadows and a hokey romance trilogy I got from the Little Free Library.

Anyway all this is just to ask if anyone wants to watch Wolfwalkers with me. I don't have Apple+ but we could get a trial run; this is going to be an amazing film.

Here we go again!

Sign up here for a Christmas card from Kairos. They are not original art this year. In fact, they're essentially scavenged from a secondhand store. But come on, it's nice to get mail and we need to leap on every potential crumb of happiness out of this year.

Comments are screened so that you can leave a mailing address and I'm the only one who will see it. If you're not sure whether I already have your address, the answer is probably that I had it at one time and have lost it by now.

Last week my family celebrated my niece's ninth birthday, and the theme she chose was...dragons. Obviously this is awesome, but my sister explained to me in advance that the new dragon obsession was due entirely to a book series she had been devouring called Wings of Fire. As it turns out I had already heard about those from Simon's boss's kids, who also have a newfound dragon obsession, so my curiosity was beginning to pile up and when we got there I borrowed the first book in the series and skimmed through it (didn't attempt to read it since last time that happened I didn't finish before leaving and had to send it back through the mail).

I am now livid that these books weren't around when I was a kid. All of the characters are dragons! Proper dragons, with wings and four legs and breath weapons and language and functioning societies! They come from different tribes that have different abilities and cultures! There's an epic war and a prophecy to save the world! And I was surprised to see it, but the writing actually seems really well-done, with character development, plot twists, readability, etc.

When I got home I googled to learn some more, and I think I've managed to scratch the itch enough to not go off and purchase and read hundreds of pages of children's literature. It was touch and go when I found out there's a character named Kinkajou, though. She's a RainWing - rainforest dragon, color-shifting acid-spitters and huh, now that I'm typing that I have to wonder if they were inspired by LSD. Anyway, the last thing I need is a new fandom, but I might look up some fan art from time to time, or create some and give it away to the dragon-obsessed kids in my life (what a great excuse).

Okay but the visual aid has nothing to do with any of that. It's a poster that said sister got me from my Amazon wishlist for last Christmas. I meant to show it off as soon as I had finished scratching off the books I had read, but of course I never get around to things. Except now that I've just finished The Odyssey, it was the first time since receiving the poster that I got to scratch off a new one, so this is as good an occasion as any!



Cool, huh? I love scratch-off posters. A few years ago I got Simon the United States one, and more recently I balanced it with the Europe one for me. They're side by side in the bedroom. Wait, this is supposed to be a post about books.

Next one up is Flowers For Algernon. That one is also on the poster, but more importantly, it's the last of the free books I've been downloading since I first got a Kindle. (Almost all of them were right at the beginning when I went on the hunt for them, so I thought The Odyssey was going to be the last one until I got Flowers For Algernon I don't remember where.) What this means? When I finish it, I...choose what book to read next. My friends, that is monumental.

Same thing but on devArt.