I saw The Choral mentioned in the local indie cinema weekly email, but when I went to book it for today, it had disappeared, so I checked the screenings at Vue and booked that instead. Looks like it's listed on the indie again, so whatever reason it wasn't available when I looked, it was resolved later, and I could have gone there after all.

Anyway, it was a good way to spend a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon but on the whole, it was a bit shallow and stereotypical. Some of that was probably because of the ensemble choral society aspect, so there were a bunch of central characters and all had to had their backstories told very economically. And it was yet another work to point to the enduring fascination about the first world war.

Seen making the rounds in a bunch of journals...

Go to your Works page on AO3, look at the tags, and see what the answers to these questions are.

1. What rating do you write most fics under?

Teen and up (19 out of 35 works on AO3).

2. What are your top 3 fandoms?

i. Forever Knight (TV 1992) (14)
ii. Oz (TV) (10)
iii. TIE: The Dresden Files (TV) (4) and Grantchester (TV) (4) (I expect Grantchester will pull ahead by the end of the year)

3. What is your top character you write about?

Nicholas Knight (Forever Knight) (13)

4. What are the 3 top pairings?

i. Tobias Beecher/Chris Keller (5) (Oz)
ii. Leonard Finch/Daniel Marlowe (4) (Grantchester)
iii. Nicholas Knight/Lucien LaCroix (2) (Forever Knight)

One of these things is not like the others lol.

Beecher/Keller was my absolute toxic OTP jam 20 years ago. (Don't fall in love with a serial killer, mmmkay?)

Nick/LaCroix (not an OTP), also pretty toxic.

All four of those jokers have killed people!

Meanwhile, Leonard/Daniel, my sweet, wholesome, emotional support OTP from my emotional support murder show. Look, murder only happens around them; they're not committing the murders so it's fine.

5. What are the top 3 additional tags?

i. Drabble (7)
ii. Case Fic (6)
iii. Flashbacks (5)

6. Did any of this surprise you?

Not really, no. I still have a bunch of old fic floating around out there, but I don't think that would have made a big difference in these results even if they were on AO3.

Here are some recent fannish things I've happened to see and would like to share!

Spotlight: This Halloween, I helped a friend hand out candy. She lives in one of those fancy neighborhoods where every lawn is decorated and kids roam in hordes. Among the costumes, I saw: ( list of costumes )

Ficathons, fests & communities

• Create & engage
  • smallfandomfest accepts prompts through 11/21; claiming and posting runs to 1/31.
  • ushobwri ("you should be writing") has its annual November community support social.
  • in-universe-fest celebrates unusual fanwork formats and approaches through 11/22.
  • pokeprompts holds the 15th annual Pokéxchange. Sign-ups close 11/14; assignments by 11/19; due 12/17.
  • The "Leaf and Lore" Discord server hosts a month-long Tolkien writing challenge where you set your own goals; they close the server on 12/13.
  • toothpastejuice hosts a "Rarest of Rarepairs" prompt meme through 1/25.
  • withinadream hosts a challenge for works based on "the viral Craigslist ad offering to be a disreputable fake date to an interested party's family Thanksgiving dinner" through 12/01.
  • minutia_r hosts a poetry promptfest (no end date).
  • purimgifts, the annual exchange featuring characters "who are at least one of: women, Jewish, or persecuted (preferably by evil viziers)," has sign-ups and nominations 1/02-08; due 2/23.
  • pinchhits is a forum for pinch-hits in exchanges. For example, seasonsofdrabbles is seeking pinch hitters.
  • whenisitdue tracks many more events than I note here!
• Enjoy & share
  • rec_cember is a month-long recommendations event (with sign-ups).
  • fancake (themed fanfic recs); November theme: "mystery & suspense"
  • gensplosion (gen fanfic recs)
  • het_reccers (m/f fanfic recs)
  • fanart_recs (fanart recs)
  • recthething (fanwork recs)

Sidelight: I'm continuing my first Breath of the Wild playthrough. I've freed three divine beasts, and I'm still loving it, but I'm beginning to get down to quests with which I'm struggling enough that I just have to walk away, hoping to come back later. The "Blue Flame trial" requires a precisely timed arrow shot that I can't seem to make; it feels impossible. And the stealth section of the Yiga hideout is frustrating, having to start all over with the tiniest misstep. I do have the "Champions' Ballad" DLC to look forward to when I get that far.

Fandom: Dark Shadows (1966) 
Main Characters: Dr. Julia Hoffman, Gerard Stiles, Daphne Harridge, Barnabas Collins, Eliot Stokes. Other DS characters also feature in this story + original characters.
Relationships: Gerard / Daphne and Julia / Barnabas
Eras: 19th Century, 20th Century + Parallel Timeline
Title: Midwinter
Chapters: 1 / ?
Rating: Mature
Word Count: 1,923
Note: This story features some spoilers for DS 1970 / 1971 storylines.
Trigger Warnings for Chapter 1: Angst, reference to grieving + brief references to past deaths, blood and gore.
Summary: In 1971, Dr. Julia Hoffman stumbles across a portal while walking in the woods. Swept into a future parallel world, she finds sanctuary at Collinwood. To her dismay, she soon learns that the Collins family of this reality is under siege. An ancient enemy seeks to destroy them, and it's up to Julia to help defeat it.

Link: archiveofourown.org/works/73731971/chapters/192254016

Meme picked up from senmut and brightknightie: From your AO3 Works page, look at the tags and find the answers to these questions.

Find me at AO3

1. Under what rating do you write most?

Teen and Up Audiences (40). If you count mature and explicit as one, that makes 37.

2. What are your top 3 fandoms?

Forever Knight (TV 1992) (91)
Forever Knight (TV 1992) (91)
Forever Knight (TV 1992) (91)

OK, there is nothing else. ;)

3. Which character do you write about most?

Nicholas Knight (82), closely followed by Lucien Lacroix (80). Natalie ranges third (71).

4. What are the 3 top pairings you've written?
Unsurprisingly most often Nicholas Knight/Lucien Lacroix (37), followed by Nicholas Knight/Natalie (18) and Lucien Lacroix/Natalie (8).

5. What are the top 3 additional tags?
Romance (33), Case fic (22), Dark Nicholas Knight and Natalie Lambert (5).
Although I must admit, I never put much effort in tagging other than the obvious.

Creators are now revealed, and you can continue enjoying the collection here.

The final tally on the treat sheet was 79 out of the starting 225 -- that puts us just shy of reaching tier 2 (75 remaining). That's still a very good percentage, so cheers to the valiant treaters!

Thank you everyone for another wonderful Trick or Treat!

Meme picked up from senmut: From your AO3 Works page, look at the tags and find the answers to these questions.

Find me at Brightknightie

1. Under what rating do you write most?
To my surprise, "General Audiences" (68) only barely edges out "Teen and up" (66). Interesting. (There are also 5 "Mature;" I remember just 2 of those off the top of my head.)

2. What are your top 3 fandoms?

• Forever Knight (TV 1992) (88)
• Highlander: The Series (18)
• Dungeons and Dragons (Cartoon) (8)

"The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms" will match D&DC soon. I should perhaps choose to keep them neck-and-neck.

3. Which character do you write about most?
Historically and altogether, of course it is Nick Knight (58). That's too obvious and predictable.

4. What are the 3 top pairings you've written?
My most frequently-written FK pairing is Nick/Natalie, HL Duncan/Tessa, and Sailor Moon Darien/Serena. (These are not the top three overall, but listing just FK all the time feels dull and distant.)

5. What are the top 3 additional tags?
This is the question that makes this meme most interesting, as I would not have guessed, though I really should have if I'd thought it through mathematically:

• Post-Canon (27)
• Historical (24)
• Flashbacks (16)

I re-downloaded Duolingo in the spring, after a break of several years. Years ago, I got to the end of the German available at the time and then stopped using it. I'd tried downloading it again few times in the years between, but it wouldn't actually load. In the spring, I basically had to delete all past progress to get anywhere. But it's given me another few minutes on German even if I'm still in the easy bits below my level or the level of the course I'm taking. I'm also using it for getting back to French.

A while back, my Duolingo switched from hearts to energy, a change they've been rolling out to users from the summer onwards. And it's really frustrating. With hearts, you lost them for mistakes, up to five a day, and for me, on languages I've studied before, I could sometimes go days without losing more than one or two hearts. Now with energy that depletes for every single item of practice in a lesson, it's really hard to do the 15 minutes a day that I'd like to do. There are some ways to increase your energy balance, but they are mostly unsustainable, not that helpful, or involve spending more time watching ads than learning. So very frustrating. Looks like I'm going to have to go to the paid plan if I want to continue, because the whole energy thing is annoying me.