vividcon was great. Despite being the biggest ball of anxiety while headed there, I managed to relax and have a nice relaxing time. So many vids! And also, hanging around with other fans remains excellent for my overall general well-being, so I should definitely do that more. I'm planning to do escapade_con and the new fanworks con for sure in 2019, with a third very possible.

I traveled for the first time as carry on only, which worked perfectly on the way there. On the way back, I let them gate check my suitcase for me. Leaving O'Hare was when it all fell apart. First delayed due to mechanical issues, and then due to fog, and then I arrived in Toronto to find out my connection had been helpfully cancelled for me (I had so much time to make my original flight, Air Canada, whyyyy) and rescheduled to an hour later. BUT I got a food voucher out of it, so I had a nice breakfast at A&W, where I had to order what I wanted in French because I had no idea what that particular order was called in English, because I only ever order it when I'm in Montreal. Then I slept all afternoon.

I also went to see The Meg. ( Oh, I loved it. )

My happy surprise this weekend was a notification that Exit Music had been podficced by christchex! I cried through a large portion of it. It's a very personal story for me, and to have it read back to me in a very kind voice basically turned me into mush. I'm always so touched whenever someone picks one of my fics to read.

raremaleslashex stories went live! Thanks to LuciferxDamien for Eddies in the Pond (Samurai Champloo, Jin/Mugen)!

Silver Lake (4415 words) by Tangerine
Fandom: X-Men: The Animated Series
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Relationships: Remy LeBeau/Logan (X-Men)
Additional Tags: First Kiss, Camping, Cooking
Summary: After rescuing him from the Sentinels, Wolverine takes Gambit on a long-promised camping trip to Canada.

That canon review that I couldn't mention by name two months ago? I binge watched X-Men: The Animated Series in less than a week, because I hadn't watched it in its entirety since the early 90s. (I watch the episodes with Warren all the time). Season 1 through 4 are great. Season 5 is ... difficult. But man, watching that show again brought back all the feels. It's aged surprisingly well imo.

My August is currently at a 10 on the Bananas Scale. 2/4 weekends are dedicated to out of town conventions (Otakuthon in Montreal, Vividcon in Chicago), with a third on that first weekend in September (Fan Expo in Toronto). Then another weekend is a vacation, and another weekend is a barbecue. Which means I basically have all the July weekends left to make significant headway on this Marvel Bang.

Marvel Bang breakdown:

• Rictor/Shatterstar
• Self indulgent established relationship fuzzies
• There is a cruise ship
• Shatterstar wears ridiculously tiny bathing suits to make Rictor happy

( I also went to see Skyscraper, and I was SO PLEASANTLY SURPRISED ... )

For some reason, I set my alarm for this morning, which mean I was up TOO DAMN EARLY. I was sleeping so soundly, too. SIGH. I fall asleep mega quickly, but I do generally need 8 hours, so I try to time these things, but nope! So tired.

Until two days ago, I would have sworn I was completely over NSYNC and popslash, and then they reunited and all my fandom feels came back like a freight train. So many feels.

Also, against all odds, I managed to stay unspoiled for Avengers: Infinity War until I saw it on Sunday, so now I am consuming every spoiler like it is water and I am in a desert. I even saw it with someone else (which never happens -- I am a solo moviegoer for the most part), and had to get my nerd on to explain various Marvel story-lines that I didn't even know I knew.

My comic book store never has back boards in, and even when they do, they don't put prices on anything, which vaguely annoys me, but it turns out Amazon sells supplies, so okay, works for me. I have a small stack to bag and board, mostly X-Men: Blue, which I am so far behind on. I also bought a new long-box, so that brings me to 12 long-boxes and 6 short boxes. Aka, too many damn comics.

Speaking of comics, smutswap reveals happened, and I wrote ... Rictor/Shatterstar for Thinlizzy2!

The Obvious Approach (5450 words) by Tangerine
Fandom: X-Factor (Comics)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Julio Richter/Shatterstar
Additional Tags: Porn with Feelings, Scars, Comfort Sex, Desperate Sex, Use of Magic or Super Powers During Sex, Body Worship
Summary: Fighting alongside Rictor brings out strong feelings in Shatterstar, which he doesn't always know what to do with. Rictor, obviously, helps him out.

Can't stop watching people play Fortnite on Twitch, and writing an AU in my head where Rictor and Shatterstar are Twitch streamers who team up and fall in love! I also think I have enough of a plot to send Rictor and Shatterstar on a cruise, in which they spend a lot of time in a hot tub. We'll see. I should really be working on my fandom5k story. But hot tubs!

I honestly didn't think I could do it -- I got the majority of my popslash added to AO3. It took me five hours to add The Book of Secrets alone. There a few stories I didn't add -- two because they were co-written with other people, one because it has Nick Carter, one because (in my head) it's the story that started me on the path of pulling away from that fandom. I'm also missing one series, which I will add someday, but I need to be in the right headspace to re-read it before posting.

Ignoring the stories I didn't add, I wrote 854,020+ words in popslash and 76+ stories. When that fandom was good to me, it was really really good. BoS alone clocked in at 143,732 words. Amazing. I had no idea.

( I also went to see A Quiet Place ... )

Got my assignment for fandom5k. Okay, self, you can do this. My request went out for a pinch hit, because I couldn't be matched, but it's been claimed. Me and my tiny fandoms/OTPs.