Hils's journal

1. Vardy v Rooney: A Courtroom Drama - My housemate wanted to watch this because Michael Sheen is in it. I don't even have that excuse, although it's always nice to see him in things. IDK I wasn't obsessively following the court case when it happened, but my boss kept giving us updates because she found it highly entertaining. I think it was just something silly to focus on to distract us all from the shit that's going on in the world. Anyway, the cast were great and it was highly entertaining. I don't think we were supposed to laugh as much as we did but it was kind of ridiculous.
2. Ghost Doctor - This is one I've been group watching with friends over the past few months. It was a lot of fun. A rather silly concept (brilliant surgeon is in a coma after an accident and haunts the hospital where his body is) with a surprising amount of heart to it. I enjoyed it.
3. Dragon Age: Absolution - I loved this! I don't know how well this would stand up if you haven't played the games. It's mostly a stand alone story with a few nods to previous canon. I, however, have played the games and they are pretty much my favourite game franchsise. So, yep, this was great. Very much in the vein of the games. Everyone is gay and it's delightful.
4. The Eclipse - This was okay. It was in a similar vein as Not Me in terms of being a BL drama about social justice, but it lacked the maturity and tight storyline that Not Me had. The two main leads were both excellent it just lost its way a bit towards the end. Still very enjoyable.
5. Welcome to Chippendales - Honestly this show wasn't even on my radar until Jacqui was looking for something to watch and saw it on Disney+. She told me she'd watched a documentary about the founder of Chippendales a while back and gave me a brief synopsis. It was such a wild story that I had to watch this. It was really good! The cast did a phenomenal job
6. About Youth - I'd had this recced to me a while back so when my Saturday group watch gang suggested we watch it I was all in. It was great! Incredibly sweet, occasionally heartbreaking. We all really enjoyed it.
7. Hotel del Luna - I enjoyed this a lot even though I cried WAY more than I was expecting to. I thought it was going to be a wacky comedy about ghosts, and there are lots of funny bits, but there's also a lot about death, grief and making peace with your life. I think I cried at least once in just about every episode. Do rec though. It was good.
8. Roommates of Poongduck 304 - This is one I started group watching before Christmas with some friends and never got around to finishing. It was cute. Nothing amazing, and not one I'd particularly want to watch again but it was fine.

I don't post for weeks and then dump a load in one day. Sorry.

Festivids went live today and there were some good DMBJ offerings. One for my OT3, one for my favourite character and one for all the weird creatures and monsters that show up in the various adaptations.

I didn't take part in this exchange but I still feel like I've been gifted.

Still Into You (Iron Triangle OT3)
I Got Mine (Wang Pangzi)
Dead Egyptian Blues (Tomb Shenanigans)

I'm not really one for watching movies these days. They're so long and if I can't motivate myself to watch an hour long episode of a drama I def can't motivate myself to watch a 2+ hour movie. My work weekly movie nights seem to have fizzled out, which is fair enough. We set it up to keep us sane during lockdown and we've been full time back in the office for a year now.

Still, on the offchance I do watch a movie I'll record them here.

1. Between Complete and Incomplete - I'm not sure this counts as a movie as it's a 20 minute short film but I loved it! A fandom friend recommended it because it has good asexual representation and they weren't wrong. Really sweet story about a guy in a polyamorous relationship with two other men and trying to figure out how he fits in. I really enjoyed it.

Stole this one from tinny. This is the final 2022 review meme that I have to do.

Works I posted this year:

Nineteen fics:
Soup and Snuggles (DMBJ, Gen, 2k)
Reprise (DMBJ, Wang Pangzi/Wu Xie/Zhang Qiling, 8.5k)
Varying Degrees (DMBJ, Gen, 3k)
Catalyst (DMBJ, Wang Pangzi/Wu Xie, 1k)
Alone With You (DMBJ, Gen, 4k)
Breaking Point (Kei x Yaku, Hanabusa Shirou/Kunishita Ichirou, 1k)
Aftermath (Kei x Yaku, Hanabusa Shirou/Kunishita Ichirou, 2k)
Sharing is Caring (Kei x Yaku, Hanabusa Shirou/Kunishita Ichirou, 2k)
Tattle Tail (DMBJ, Liu Sang/Wang Pangzi, 2k)
Hidden Talents (DMBJ, Gen, 8k)
Oh So Quiet (DMBJ, Wang Pangzi/Zhang Qiling, 2k)
Every Day in my Heart (DMBJ, Wang Pangzi/Wu Xie/Zhang Qiling, 8k)
Pest Control (DMBJ, Wang Pangzi/Wu Xie/Zhang Qiling, 3.5k)
Keeps on Giving (DMBJ, Wang Can/Wang Pangzi, 13k)
Unseen Heart (DMBJ, Liu Sang/Wang Pangzi, 6k)
A Time to Sew (DMBJ, Qi Tie Zui/Zhang Rishan, 3k)
Home Alone (DMBJ, Wang Pangzi/Wu Xie, 6k)
My Boyfriend's Boyfriends (DMBJ, Wang Pangzi/Wu Xie/Ye Piaopiao/Zhang Qiling, 17k)
Juxtaposition (DMBJ, Wang Pangzi/Wu Xie/Zhang Qiling, 59k)

( The Questions )

I've had this open in a tab since the start of the year and I should probably do it before January is actually over.

1. Your main fandom of the year?

Still DMBJ. I love these idiot tomb raiders.

2. Your favorite film watched this year?

Lighting Up The Stars - Freely admit I watched this because of Zhu Yilong but wasn't prepared for how beautifully written and acted it was. I can see why he's won so many awards for it.

3. Your favorite book read this year?

All I read last year was the DMBJ novels (there's so many) and a book for our newly founded LGBTQ+ Network book club. So I guess I'll go with that. It was And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. I was familiar with the story thanks to seeing a couple of TV and movie adaptations but that didn't stop the book from being really unsettling and atmospheric. Very well written.

4. Your favorite album or song to listen to this year?

Funnily enough I just went through my Apple Music Replay (their version of Spotify Wrapped) at the weekend so I can answer this easily. The song I listened to by far more than any other was Turbulence by ATEEZ. I can't put my finger on exactly what it is about this song that moved me so much but I get super emotional whenever I listen to it even though I don't understand most of the lyrics

( The rest under here )

Challenge #2

In your own space, write a promo, manifesto or primer for your fave character, ship or fandom. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Okay, those of you who have known me in previous fandoms will know that generally when I get into something new I drag people down with me. DMBJ is a rare exception because, honestly, it's sprawling and largely incoherent and full of plot holes that have mostly been filled by fic writers. Not exactly a ringing endorsement, right?

Well, since this challenge calls for a primer I am going to give a very, very brief overview of what it's all about.

( This is going to get long )

1. Vardy v Rooney: A Courtroom Drama - My housemate wanted to watch this because Michael Sheen is in it. I don't even have that excuse, although it's always nice to see him in things. IDK I wasn't obsessively following the court case when it happened, but my boss kept giving us updates because she found it highly entertaining. I think it was just something silly to focus on to distract us all from the shit that's going on in the world. Anyway, the cast were great and it was highly entertaining. I don't think we were supposed to laugh as much as we did but it was kind of ridiculous.
2. Ghost Doctor - This is one I've been group watching with friends over the past few months. It was a lot of fun. A rather silly concept (brilliant surgeon is in a coma after an accident and haunts the hospital where his body is) with a surprising amount of heart to it. I enjoyed it.
3. Dragon Age: Absolution - I loved this! I don't know how well this would stand up if you haven't played the games. It's mostly a stand alone story with a few nods to previous canon. I, however, have played the games and they are pretty much my favourite game franchsise. So, yep, this was great. Very much in the vein of the games. Everyone is gay and it's delightful.

I do love starting the new year by doing snowflake_challenge. I don't know this is the third year I've done it and there's just something quite comforting about it.

Challenge #1

In your own space, update your fandom information! Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

There's nothing to update on my sticky post. I'm still in the same fandom that I was in last year with no new ones to add.

But I've taken the prompts snowflake_challenge provided and filled them in just for something to do

• Transformative Works Policy: Blanket permission is given to use any of my stories to make podfic, translations or other transformative works with proper credit. It would be awesome to have a link to anything created, but there's no need to ask for permission - please go ahead!. My policy is posted on my AO3 profile


• Current Passion My current fandom (DMBJ) takes up most of my time. But I recently started playing Disney Dreamlight Valley and that is also occupying a lot of space in my mind. It's so fun.


• Where to Find Me: I am mostly active on Twitter hils_k while it's still going at least. And I also spend a lot of time on Discord. Tumblr I generally just go on once a day, reblog a load of stuff and then just keep an eye on my notifications. I also link to all my fic there hils79


• Master List: I don't have a master list of all my fic because it's too much. Everything is on AO3 at hils. I post weekly fic recs to Tumblr under a Fic Recs tag


• Anything Else: Always happy to meet new friends. Hello. Hi.

This is me done until after Christmas now. Heading to Scotland tomorrow to spend 10 days with my parents

1. Hawkeye - Started this last year but finished it last week because I was watching it with Jacqui so we left the last episode until we were both back from the holidays. It was fun. A nice mesh of the Fraction comics and the MCU version of Clint. Kate was awesome.
2. The Witcher Season 2 - Despite the fact I could barely remember anything that happened in season 1 I still very much enjoyed this. Jaskier continues to be a delight. Henry Cavill's arms, also delightful.
3. Tale of the Nine-Tailed - I loved this! Full of Korean mythology and folklore, an excellent female lead, and a side character I got very attached to. I didn't think I was overly emotionally invested and then I bawled through the finale. So good.
4. Kieta Hatsukoi (My Love Mix-Up) - This was adorable. It was very silly, and a lot of the drama could have been avoided if the characters had just talked to each other, but I haven't watched a bl drama in ages and overall it was very sweet.
5. You Make Me Dance - Short but very sweet. I really enjoyed it.
6. Wandavision - I have kind of fallen out with Marvel over recent years so aside from Hawkeye I haven't felt any real urge to watch any of the live action shows. My housemate suggested we watch this, though, and even thought she'd already seen it she watched it with it. It was good! I enjoyed it. I do love Paul Bettany and it was nice to see his actual face for a few episodes rather than the prosthetics.
7. Street Dance of China Season 4 - This actually finished last year and we've been waited ages for the final episode to be subbed but apparently they just aren't doing that. They partially subbed 2/3 of the finale (just the captains' comments) and didn't bother with the final 1/3 at all. So, we muddled through and tried our best to figure out what was happening. It's fun, I do enjoy watching all the dancing and you do end up getting attached to some of the contestants.
8. Falcon and the Winter Solider - I absolutely loved this! It's my favourite of all the live action MCU shows that we've watched so far. It had a bunch of great characters, great characters, interesting plots. Loved it. They managed to cram a lot into 6 episodes and it was excellent!
9. My Roommate is a Detective - I enjoyed this. It took me a little while to warm up to the characters and the ending wasn't quite what I wanted but overall a good and fun show
10. Color Rush - This was a really interesting idea (some people can only see in black and white until they meet their 'probe' which is a person that lets them see colour). They really needed a lot more time than 8 15 minute episode. They skimmed over a lot of the world building and left a few plothole. I did enjoy it, I just wanted a lot more of it.
( The Rest )

62. Staged - I missed this when it originally aired so I had a catchup this week so I was ready for the new series which I have also watched. Really enjoyed it. A fun idea that I'm sure they will show kids in schools eventually to give them some ideas of what lockdown was like. It's weird that so much of the first series in particular feels so alien now even though it was only a couple of years ago.
63. Flower of Evil - This one was quite silly and a bit over the top but overall it was enjoyable. It was nice to see a drama about a family man rather than about a man finding love.
64. LORD: Critical World - I honestly don't know what to say about this one. It's ridiculous, hilarious, made me cry, confusing and a whole bunch of other things. I'll be honest unless you're particularly invested in the cast (there's a lot of actors from the various tomb shows in it) I'm not sure you'd get that much out of it. I mostly enjoyed it though!

I have happy things to report for once!

I have just finished my WIP. It's 56k at the moment and will probably be around 60k by the time I finish editing the last few chapters. I'm so happy. I started working on this in January and I have taken breaks to do other short things but I have mostly been working on this all year.

Recruitment seems to be finally seeing a turn for the better at work. We're down to 2 vacancies from 6 and we have a promising interview scheduled for Monday. I feel like maybe, for now at least, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I submitted my application to be on the LGBTQ+ Network board yesterday so I should hear something next week I think. I'm feeling fairly confident and, honestly, even if they decide to go with someone else I've at least registered my interest. I feel like the fact that I was asked if I was interested in stepping up my involvement before they even advertised the post is a fairly positive indicator that they want me for this role. We'll see what happens.

Oh, and I've signed up for the annual love meme

✨ holiday love meme 2022 ✨
my thread here