okay FINE I'll do the thing because I was tagged by his lordship this one is called answer 11, ask 11, tag 11 but I'm only doing the first part of and semi the last part of that because I'm a rebel and you can't contain me yeeeeeah *guitar riff*
1. What positive memory would you use to summon your Patronus? (If you’re not a Harry Potter nerddork, just write up your happiest memory.)
The kinds of moments that stand out to me as being particularly happy are all really quiet and happened when I was out in nature somewhere. Like being in the woods and listening to the wind in the trees and watching the shadows play out on the ground. Or standing next to the ocean and wanting to run out over the horizon. Or when I went to Idaho and looked up one night and saw all those stars for the first time ever.
But right after that, all the time I've spent with my two oldest friends, when they made me laugh so hard I was physically aching afterwards. Actually any time someone made me laugh so hard I was in pain. Those are always good times.
2. What song is guaranteed to put you in a good mood?
Rockapella - Zombie Jamboree wow it is terrifying how fast I came up with that
second place: I'll Make a Man Out of You from Mulan BE A MAN
3. What was your first fandom? How’d you get into it? Are you still in it?
...god dammit. It was boybands, okay? It was fucking boybands. It was my aforementioned friends' fault I was twelve/thirteen it was the 90s no I will NEVER admit to the number of Mary Sues I read I still think Bye Bye Bye is a catchy fucking song and I like dudes harmonizing okay GO AHEAD, JUDGE ME. ... thank the fucking lord you didn't ask me my second fandom
No I am not still in it although there are a few relics of my past lurking unironically in my music folder *kicks Sundreams under the rug*
4. What would the pitch for your ideal TV show/movie/book sound like?
I dunno anything about pitches but I love fantasy and will watch and read just about anything with dragons and/or krakens and/or ships and/or pirates in it.
I think the best stories are always character-driven, meaning all elements of story and plot follow from the development of the characters. In that vein, I want interesting and diverse characters. I've read and seen and loved enough stories focusing on cishet white boys but you asked about the ideal so I'm talking the kind of diversity that runs the gamut of human experience and portrays every character as a fully realized person and not as props to further the male storylines.
Also I prefer romance as a sideplot, but plenty of diverse romantic elements as well. And for the love of god, main female character(s) who DON'T have romantic plots and who are not even a little mopey about it. And on top of that, themes of friendship, and friends who get along and make each other laugh and make the reader laugh because god knows characters with a sense of humor is something we don't see enough of either.
I could probably go on and on but I think that covers the main points of what I really want to see in fiction.
5. If you could meet any living person, who would it be and why?
JK Rowling even though I would probably spend the entire time crying and unable to say a word. Because her writing meant so much to me growing up. I'd spent my whole life reading fantasy and no one gave a fuck, I thought to be an author was to be a complete unknown, that books were just uncool.
And then all of a sudden everyone, young and old, nerdy or not, fantasy reader or not, was talking about Harry Potter, and it was like this whole world opened up. I wasn't the only one deeply affected by a book anymore, it was everyone, and I got to experience discussing literature with my friends, friends I had in part because we were fans of this thing.
The LotR movies/books did that for me too, but a) Tolkien is dead and I would probably just shake in fear if I met him, unable to even cry, and b) JKR has been a role model to me all this time, not just as an author but as a woman too, and a smart, sassy, hilarious one at that.
6. What is the greatest adventure you’ve had so far?
Does picking up and moving to New York with only an unpaid internship as an excuse count? It sounds like it does but the reality was a lot of work and stress so I'm not sure? If not, the aforementioned Idaho trip. It was right after I finished high school and I went with a friend, not my parents, and I lived a lifelong dream of going to Yellowstone, and standing under enormous skies in enormous fields.
7. Favorite comfort book/TV show/movie
Book(s): The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede or Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett TV Show: Avatar the Last Airbender, which I put off watching for years but is now my security blanket Movie: Muppet Treasure Island listen it's got pirates and muppets and I am weak
8. What’s the corniest joke you know?
The past, the present, and the future all walked into a bar at the same time. It was tense.
9. If you could study any subject of your choosing, all associated expenses paid, what would it be and why?
Every single fucking history class I could possibly get my hands on in one lifetime. I'm talking attempting to learn the entire known history of the entire world. Oh god that would be wonderful especially if I could give up working and just do that. I suck at learning history on my own, I need classes to do it, but I desperately want to know all the things.
10. Why did you join Tumblr?
I was still using LJ semi-regularly at the time but it was slowly dying and I wanted a place where my blogging could be more fragmented and less structured, but also more public and less focused on ~~my life~~ which I was less and less willing to go on about at length. I intended it to supplement LJ but of course got hooked. I just wish the comment system here was nearly as good as over there. sigh.
11. What’s the best surprise you’ve ever gotten?
I had been in New York a year but still didn't really know anyone, and wasn't close with my roommates--in fact, I was planning to move out of that apartment at the end of the month. I had a birthday coming up and absolutely no plans or anyone to really spend time with, and the people I did know didn't know me very well. Which sucked because I couldn't really be myself around anyone, at least not the version of me that I like.
I was taking it in stride and genuinely not angsting over it, but one of my longtime internet friends all the way across the ocean, who I'd only met in person once, arranged to have cupcakes from a bakery in Brooklyn sent to my office. And made the cupcake people sign the card "Aaron Tveit's Arse." I wasn't expecting it at all and I still tear up a little thinking about it, because it made me laugh so freaking hard and made me feel less lonely when I hadn't even realized I was lonely and ugh JUST UGH.
I've never had a metric ton of friends but the quality of the ones I do have is beyond anything I could have ever possibly hoped for and how did this dumb meme turn into me crying about friendship? fuck you, sirken
Anyhoozle I wasn't going to tag anyone because I never tag anyone and definitely don't feel like making up questions but these questions are gr9 so I'm just going to shamelessly steal them. However you cannot stop me from raging against the man so I'm only tagging 9 people. DEAL.
kyniska
brightontheoutside
truncated-symphony
obamainstripes
jesswantsitall
queeshmael I am tagging you again now you have to put in extra effort suck it
sugarroku
spoopylesbian
cloudvictory or prologuing or whatever you're going by these days you know since I talked smack about you in this post, if you can bring yourself to stoop to the level of doing a dumb little survey on your classyass blog.