Olympics and a fanfic meme

[heavenly_pearl]

How did I get sucked into watching the Summer Olympics? I was only going to watch the opening ceremony. I don't care about the summer events; I prefer the winter events. Well, okay, there was a brief time when I was younger when I had a mild interest in gymnastics, but it didn't stick for very long. I haven't watched a competition in years. Yet here I am, glued to the TV set every night to watch gymnastics and swimming! I'm blaming my brother-in-law. :P When we visited last weekend, practically all we did was watch the Olympics since my sister was so busy with her schoolwork.

Oh, well.

I'll get back to the 30 Day meme tomorrow, but for today, I'm taking a break to do another meme that I snagged from ssamuraiter

1. How did you get interested in fanfic?

I was searching for Sailor Moon sites during some free time at school and happened to come across a site with a fanfiction section. After reading a couple of stories, I thought the concept of writing stories about other people's characters was really cool, although I didn't start writing until a couple of years later, when we got our first home computer. amazonqueenkate's Galactic Sailors was the fanfic that really inspired me to start writing.

2. What was your first fandom? Your first OTP?

Sailor Moon, of course! Nephrite/Naru (Neflyte/Molly, as I knew them at first) were technically my first OTP, I suppose, but by the time I got involved in online fandom (which was many years after I first saw the show), I was pretty much all about Helios/Chibi-usa. (My first fic was a H/C story.) They're still my all-time OTP!

3. Do you review all the fanfics you read? Most of them? Or do you prefer to read and move on? If you write, what is the best review you have gotten to date? The worst?

No, I don't do reviews. I tend read and move on, although I do "favorite" the stories I really like.

Best review? It's not public -- he PM'd me at .moon -- but Lord Chaos sent me a wonderful review of "To Be By Your Side". He's one of my favorite fanfic authors, so getting a review from him was pretty much the highlight of my fanfic career! Worst? Eh, probably from one reader who really hated that I wrote a Mamoru/Setsuna story ("Sands of Time (Destiny Arrives)").

4. Favorite AU to read? To write?

I'm not generally a fan of AUs, although I am currently writing a vampire Helios/Chibi-Usa fic (a continuation of something I wrote for sailormoonland). For me to really like an AU fic, the characterization of the canon characters has to be spot on, and it's great if there are other ties to canon material. For example, in the aforementioned vampire H/C story, Helios is a (Catholic or Anglican) priest who lives at Elysion Abbey and owns a horse named Pegasus. I love stuff like that, making canon references fit into a new setting. On the other hand, I hate AUs that are basically original fiction with canon characters' names slapped on it. The story might be good, but I read fanfiction to get more of canon, not someone's original works. If I wanted that, I'd just read a book.

5. What is your favorite genre to read? To write?

I enjoy writing drama the most. My favorite to read? I like a combination of romance, comedy, and drama, so romantic dramedies? Mysteries are also pretty fun.

6. What are your biggest fanfic pet peeves?

As I mentioned in question four, Original Story AUs. They're just not fanfiction, in my opinion. Bad grammar also gets on my nerves, especially when it comes to dialogue. Before I read a story, I always scan it first to check if the author knows how to punctuate dialogue correctly. If they don't, then it's usually an automatic backbutton, unless it's really short, doesn't have a lot of dialogue, or I know that English isn't the author's first language. In those cases, I'm sometimes a little more lenient, but still, it drives me crazy.

7. Do you have any crackships?

Some, but not a lot, since I tend to be a canon shipper. Probably the crackiest is Hawkseye/Setsuna.

8. Do you have any ships you do not like or used to like but no longer do?

Haruka/Seiya still breaks my brain whenever I see it. And I've mentioned several times previously my hatred of Shigure/Akito from Fruits Basket.

9. Are there any kinks you love to read? Any you avoid?

I love student/teacher relationships. They're my major guilty pleasure (as long as the student isn't too young). I also like stories involving cheating/adultery for all the delicious drama that tends to bring.

10. Do you prefer to read fanfics in first, second, or third-person POVs? To write?

Third-person is my preference, both for reading and writing. First-person is fine for shorter fics, but I don't really care for it for multi-parts for some reason. I don't like second-person at all.

11. Do you read exclusively NC-17 fanfics, or will you read any rating?

I'll read any rating.

12. What is the latest you have stayed up reading a fanfic? Writing one?

I don't read or write late at night.

13. Is there a website you prefer when you search for fanfic, or do you more read whatever you can get your hands on? When it comes to writing, is there a website you prefer to use for publishing your fanfics?

FF.net is the main place I search for fanfics, although sometimes I find stuff on .moon, AO3, and LJ. I also post at all those places.

14. How long have you been "18"?

Ten years, since I turned eighteen. :P I never had to lie about my age, because I didn't get a home computer until about a month afterwards, and I certainly wasn't going to go looking for porn on the school computers! (Not that I ever really go looking for it. More like I just happen to come across it.)

15. Are there any plot ideas you want to either do or see someone else do?

Oh, plenty! I have a whole list of possible story ideas that I'll probably never get to.

16. Do you associate certain songs with certain ships or fanfics? If you could make a playlist for your OTP(s), which songs would be on there?

"Dream a Dream" by Charlotte Church and Billy Gilman is THE official Helios/Chibi-Usa song in my book. Every time I hear it, I can't help but think of them. In addition, "I Surrender" by Celine Dion is the theme song for my H/C fic, "To Be By Your Side", and "My Confession" by Josh Groban is associated in my mind with another one of my other H/C fics, "Beautiful Dreamer".

When my sister and her husband got married, their first dance was to Christina Perri's "A Thousand Years", which I think is pretty much perfect for Mamoru/Usagi, although it could work for Helios/Chibi-Usa as well.

As for playlists, I actually made a couple of fanmixes for two of my favorite SM couples, Helios/Chibi-Usa and Endymion/Pluto. You can find them here. (They were created for sailormoonland.)

17. Do you follow any RPs? Do you RP?

Nope.

18. What is on your fanfic rec list?

My Favorites list over at FF.net is a good source for most of my faves, along with the recommendation pages on my websites (although those are out-of-date; it's been ages since I've updated them). I'll just mention a handful of favorites here, though.

Sailor Moon

Tales of the Dreamworld and The Paranoia Groove by His lordship Chaos
Sailor Moon 4200 by Angus MacSpon
Secrets by Ken Wolfe
Misconception by Dejana Talis
The Awakenings of Tsukino Chibi-Usa by Kotetsu
The Promises We Do Not Speak Of, Immortal Cage: An Impasse to Nowhere Land and Paper Wishes by Blue Jeans
Inori and Blessed Be by superkate
Pretty Soldiers by Sokudo Ningyou
Like the Wind by Starsea
The Brooch by sailorknight
Empire of the Sun and "As God Is My Witness, I Thought Turkeys Could Fly" by sophiap
Hands Fall Together by Kihin Ranno
Baron Agate by samuraiter

Card Captor Sakura

Drifting and Sympathy, Tenderness by superkate
Velveteen by sophiap
The Best Worst Chocolate by L-chan

Death Note

Moving by The Lost And Found Box
Once There Was by Bialy
The 31st of October by willowscribe
Through Hallowed Windows by Bloodshot Eyes
Spider by WhiteLadyDragon

Fruits Basket

Bump in the Road and Shaken, Not Stirred by Niamh St. George
Beautiful Disaster by Danyu
According to Alice by Starsea
Frozen Hands by ylana
Embrace by Spooky4ever
The Stone of the Fruit by Mellish
History, Like Love, Alive Through The Dawn, and The Ceremony of Innocence by Ysabet

Kaleido Star

Unsynchronized by Chained Dove
Joyride and Like the Flower by Lanerose
Ken's Dream by Winter Oak
Phoenix At Sea by Yudachi
Sunshine of Your Love by Holly Warner
Word of Mouth by silentlysnowing
This girl's my angel by Ranowa Hikura
Heart of Ice by crazy-blond-angel

Princess Tutu

Do It For Him by Robin Rocks
Excerpt by Seraphim Starlight
Raison d'etre by Astrobright68
The Ending by olesia.love
Transparency by Manda-chan
So a Cat Walks Into a Bar by nebroadwe
Mirage Variation by Syrinx

Witch Hunter Robin

A Death in Venice and Trust Between Conrades by Rhiannon B.
The Burning Time by Misora
Binah: Understanding by M Mehiel
Contingency Plans by Rutoh-Chan
Journey to Rebirth by IfOnlyTheyWereReal
A Cruel Mind and Trials and Tribulations by Mycha
Whisky and Gin and Still-Life by tripping fruit

Heh, that kinda turned into more of than a "handful". Oops? Well, anyway, most of these can be found at FF.net if you're interested in reading them, but if you can't find them there, leave a comment and I'll get you the link. (I was going to link all of these, but that's too much work!)