I feel like my pinterest account has never come in more handy than for the sunshine_challenge color theme. When I'm stuck on a subject/color, it helps move ideas around for me until I settle on one.

ORANGE

I know not everyone that follows me is familiar with the Dragon Age series of video games. I inhaled The first novel, The Stolen Throne before the first game came out, devoured the first game and couldn't wait for me. I never expected Dragon Age II to hit me the same way the first game had, mostly because it didn't have Teagan, who I'd madly fallen in love with as a side character. And then along came this badass redheaded warrior.

I definitely have a weakness for take no shit female warriors. She stole my heart almost instantly. She's loyal and strong and dedicated to her husband, to her work, to saving people. She was in the war in the first game, but we never see her. She quickly goes alone with the Hawkes when they meet up and they take her in after her husband dies. She supports them, and eventually all the miscreants pick up along the way during their time in Kirkwall. Sometimes she takes refugees to Anders, she keeps Fenris squatting safely in his old master's, she understanding if lovingly ripping on Isabela's involvement at the Bloombing Rose. And she'll follow the eldest Hawke just about anywhere, even when she's fed up with their shit.

I strongly associate Aveline with The Chariot card from the tarot [photo is from the True Black Tarot]. The Chariot is meant to be about strength and hard-work, which for someone like Aveline, a warrior who takes her war experience and translate it to a job with the guard in Kirkwall and rising later to Guard Captain. She fights fiercely for her friends and the citizens of her city. Her attachment to her job in Kirkwall goes beyond that of a job, she treats it like a calling. And I love her for it. Even at the end, even if Hawke is an asshole, even if she feels like they're making the wrong choices she'll stand beside them and fight the real evil. And at the end, she doesn't leave. She's set down roots and decides to stay, whatever comes next to Kirkwall, she'll be there to protect it.

She's lovely but she's not there to be a love interest (though the shipper in me wishes she was). But she's a friend. The most badass, loyal friend anyone could possibly need. She doesn't push you, she doesn't need anything from you. She's awkward at relationship. She's a protector and an ally.

I love her friendship with Fenris and Isabela the most though, because they're off-screen. We hear it in banter, little bits at a time. Especially if you get Donnic as a love-interest for Aveline. The three of them must have dinners and wine nights and I really love that touch of her. She's one of the ultimate mom-friends, checking in on people after hours and outside of all the hours they already spend together. Making sure people are looked after and well fed and protected from the dangers of a potentially dangerous city for refugees. We need more characters like this.

For Challenge #4 of sunshine_challenge

During the Snowflake Challenge, I did both some fan recs and some self recs so I'm going to link those again before I share other stuff. First, fanwork recs for Dragon Age/Little Red Riding Hood, Labyrinth and Critical Role. Next, some self recs for Henry V, Life is Strange and (again) Critical Role.

I do have some new stuff to share, this time with videos!

First up is the Retro Replay YouTube channel. Which maybe this is something that's riding a fine edge between new content and fan content, but I feel like not enough people know about it and I find it endlessly entertaining. Retro Replay is a show with very famous voice actors Nolan North & Troy Baker where they play retro video games (kind of). Mostly it's just them hanging out and telling weird stories. While I recommend their weekly show because it's always good for a laugh, the playthrough of Uncharted that they're doing separate from their regular weekly show, is amazing. Watching Nolan play the game he did the voice for, is great entertainment and Troy is SUCH a fanboy about the game. I love it.

Here's the Playlist for the Uncharted playthrough. But if you like it, I highly recommend checking out the rest of their content.

The Good Omens fandom resurgence with the television show has provided some really great fanvids. I want to share this one for "Hallelujah" because not only is a great song but I love the version of the song they used which is the Pentatonix version and one of my favorite covers.

"Good Omens [Hallelujah]" (Watch on YouTube)

And since it seems to be a theme with my rec posts, I'll go ahead and throw out something for Critical Role again too! I'm in love with the barbarian character, Yasha (I currently play a barbarian in the game I'm in so that might have something to do with it). And the artwork the fandom has come up for her character is just truly amazing. One of my current favorites is this piece by thealeksdemon (hopefully the twitter embed works but if it doesn't the link to their twitter post is here).

Let a girl rage, my dude #CriticalRole #criticalrolefanart @TheVulcanSalute pic.twitter.com/aFjiN6FpFg

— Aleksis (ง •̀ω•́)ง✧ | flash commissions CLOSED (@thealeksdemon) January 26, 2018

For Challenge #2 sunshine_challenge

In my first post here, I mentioned that I'd shut down my old DW account which made in the LJ exodus days. For about 18 years everywhere I went online was under the username cherith (my now private LJ is still under that name and my IG account is still under cherithe (when cherith was taken). I'd chosen that name... long before I was going online. I'd grown up in a very strict fundamental Baptist upbringing and I used to read a lot of the Strong's Concordance which is basically a research tool for Bible students to find the original Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic used in the Bible. I found Cherith during research of Elijah the Prophet in 1 Kings. God tells Elijah to go to Cherith, which is like a ravine or a brook, during a long drought so Elijah would have access to water. In the lesson I was researching Cherith is described less as a location but as a passage of time where Elijah was cut off from the world, similar to the way God cut off other of his favorites in order to make them reliant on him. Regardless of my beliefs (I've never bought into Christianity even when I lived deep, deep in it for a long time) I liked the name, Cherith. I held onto it and when I needed a name online, it was the one I reached for.

Last year, after some fallout with some friends I needed a fresh start. Something different, something where those people couldn't/wouldn't find me or seek me out. At the time, I'd created a Pinterest account under the name storminme related to a poem that I love by Andrea Gibson. I have a line from their poem "I Sing the Body Electric (but Only When My Power's Out) tattoed on my arm. Andrea wrote the poem about their fight with a chronic illness and as someone with Fibromyalgia and who has been through some pretty emotionally rough spots, it resonates a lot with me. Specifically this part:

I said to the sun
tell me about the Big Bang
The sun said, 'It hurts to become.'

My tattoo says, "it hurts to become", as a reminder that sometimes we go through some real awful shit and if we can make it through that, we can make it through anything. Our past mistakes and challenges make us who we are for good or bad. I find sometimes it helps when I'm going through a rough patch to look at my arm and remember what I've made it through so far.

There was a second part to coming up with singedsun too. Those people I was trying to avoid, they renamed something we were working on together "and so we burned". And I don't know the combination of me seeing Andrea perform this poem I love so much, in person, twice last year and this idea that these people were cognizant of what they were doing, purposefully burning bridges with me. The name singedsun felt appropriate. So most of the place I hang out regularly, DW and Tumblr and Twitter all became that name. Honestly, I love it and I plan to keep it awhile. I miss using Cherith, I'd hung on to it for SO VERY LONG and sometimes I think about changing it back. What it's done for me though, feeling free of old ties, and allowing me a space to kind of come back to fandom in a way I'd gotten away from has made me really happy.

As pronouns I use she/her though I tend to dress and keep my hair pretty androgynous. I'm bi, though I'm not out to my parents and don't ever plan to be unless I feel it's necessary. Because of my religious upbringing I didn't really realize what I was, or what those feelings were until I started dating in my 20s. And I wasn't even really able to admit that feeling to myself or my friends until after I had a serious boyfriend who loved me regardless. We've been married almost 14 years, adopted a daughter, have two grandsons and coming out to my conservative family feels like unnecessary drama. The people in my life who need to know, know.

As for my fannish identity, for what it is, I joined a lot of writing communities in my early days on LJ in the early aughts. Most of my writing was original fiction in those spaces, but through them, I found some really great fan communities/challenges and participated as an artist in a few big bangs because I love to put together a fanmix. I joined a gaming community and through it I met a friend who eventually created a gaming news and reviews website for women and I joined as a writer, and eventually became the Editor in Chief there. It's gone now, I left in about 2010 due to some real life changes (like adopting a teenager and losing my full time job). But about the same time I got really, really into the Dragon Age series and starting RPing in that universe on a few sites. It didn't take long for that to translate into fic writing. My AO3 account at the time was sparse - mostly based on fairytales from community prompts and like the one Buffy and one Firefly fic I'd written. Quickly, it filled up with Dragon Age fics. They're not all good or finished, but there's definitely a lot of them. I've done Yuletide about every year since 2009 and while DA isn't my main "fandom" anymore (I'm not sure I have a main one right now) it's definitely the one where my heart most lives.

You'll find here, aside from my rambling entries on life and fandom, a good deal of music and YT videos because that's where I spend a lot of time these days. Music and concerts are my vice, I don't drink or smoke so my expendable income, what it is, goes to concert tickets. Now that my daughter is married and has kids of her own and it's just me and my husband at home, I watch a lot of TV too. When Yuletide comes around, I'm likely to hang my hat on a variety of fannish offerings from recent television or movies in addition to whatever odd things strikes my fancy. Though, you can pry my request for Lucy/Mina from the 2013 Dracula TV show out of my cold, undead fingers.

Anyway that's me. A lot about me, too much maybe. Questions or chats always welcome.