*crickets*

[ratbones]

This place was looking pretty empty, so: intro post?

Hi! I'm ratbones. My friends call me Ratty. Well, one person calls me Ratty. I half-jokingly nicknamed myself Ratty and now my only friend calls me that. Okay. We're being honest here. I'm here primarily to participate in the Guardian fandom. I'm also ratbones on AO3, where you can find my fics. Anyone is free to add me to their circle/friend me/however we talk about these things on here. I don't intend to do much or any personal posting here, so everything will probably stay public. Actually, I don't intend to do much posting here period, but we'll see how that turns out.

I've been through multiple and various fandoms for the past decade, but very very quietly. Guardian is the first thing to drag me out of my shell since I was 14 and posting terrible anime fic on FFN. As far as I'm concerned, Guardian is some kind of black magic that has cured my shyness, caused me to write feverishly, and gathered the best damn fandom I have ever come across.

My fannish interests mostly revolve around fantasy and sci-fi, and exclusively around slash and femslash OTPs of the badass/badass variety. Some past fandoms to which I have not-contributed include Star Trek AOS, The 100, and BBC Sherlock, the last of which I've been trying in vain to block from my memory.

I am not Chinese, I do not know the Chinese language at all, and I haven't watched much in the way of cdramas. In the summer of 2018 I was bingeing through various BL dramas for mindless entertainment. I ran across Guardian in that context, and almost didn't watch it when I found out it wasn't technically BL due to censorship. I'm very pleased with myself for deciding to try it out anyway. I was hooked during the first episode, despite the questionable special effects and the rough subtitles. This show just ticks all my boxes, including ones I didn't know I had. Empathetic listening is sexy now!

My writing background is as desolate as my fandom background, to be honest. I've always had the inkling that I would like to write, and I have a bunch of messy WIPs, mostly original fiction, that will languish forever and were never intended for publishing anyway. The rate of my aimless attempts started to increase after I graduated college a couple years ago, so the timing was right for me to write fic for Guardian, once I got over the nerves. My first Guardian fic is really the first piece of fiction of any significant length, let alone plot, that I've finished. Now I've got the taste for it, so I might be around for a while.

Briefly, about me: I'm from PA, USA, and have a degree in astrophysics that is totally unrelated to my current job. I live in a really old house in the middle of nowhere with my cat, and my hobbies include being bad at video games and staring at clouds.

One last thing! Since I'm new here, please correct me if I do something wrong or super-awkward. I don't want to be annoying or anything, so you'll be helping me by telling me to cut it out.

Yes good okay thanks for reading, let's be friends :D

Edit: So far, I haven't granted anyone access because I'm posting everything publicly. Also, if you'd like a visual, there are pictures of me and my cat here.

Comments

[forestofglory]

Hi, Hi! You have account now! I hope this doesn't come off as stakerish but I saw your post via the sid_guardian members page and thought I'd come say hello since I lured you over here.

Let me know if you have questions about dreamwidth, I've been around here for a while and am happy to help.

Guardian is also the first time I've written any fanfic -- though not nearly as much as you have. I know what you mean about the fandom being black magic!

If you want to find more people to add to your circle you can check out the friending meme over on sid_guardian

[ratbones]

No, not at all stalkerish! On the contrary, I appreciate the looking-after. I'll come to you with any questions, then :)

I'm so glad other people have experienced the mysterious pull of this fandom, haha. It makes me feel less like a crazy person. Oh, I've read and enjoyed your fic, by the way! Back before I'd gotten my commenting legs under me.

I'll head over and add some people from the friending meme! Thanks for the tip.

[forestofglory]

I'm very happy to answer any questions.

Thanks for your kind words about my fic! I know of at least one other person who wrote her 1st fic for Guardian


Oh also you'd probably like brush_and_lantern -- Its Guardian a fanworks community. They have monthly themes but are pretty low key.

[extrapenguin]

Welcome! \o/ I hope you have a lot of fun on DW.

sid_guardian is a good place to start – people post fic announcements there, and link to meta, and I run a rewatchalong there. (Last week was episode 22, tomorrow we'll do 23!) Events and such also get linked, and the icons tag has some icons there so you can participate in the DW thing of picking an icon for your post/comment to complement what you wish to say. There's also a fanmix tag should you wish to discover new music.

Beyond that, go comment on the posts, reply to other people's comments. Subscribe/friend people if you think their journals look cool. Have fun!

P.S. Wow, was that fic really the first longform thing you completed? I am in awe.

P.P.S. Physicists unite!

[winter_blossom]

Ooh, so you did get around to making an account! I'm Tree_Peony over on AO3, btw, and at the risk of looking like a complete stalker, saw you posting about your new fic on the comm and figured I should come over and say hi. I can't really offer any tips about DW cos I also joined up for the sole purpose of chatting about Guardian, though I'm probably your senpai by about 4 months, for what that's worth ^_^

[winter_blossom]

Oh, but I do hope we'll be seeing you over at discussions from here on! People are usually pretty good about linking those to the comm, though you'll probably miss some of them if you aren't friends with the OP. God only knows I've probably missed tons, myself, but I'm usually up for long-winded discussions by hijacking others' posts, seeing as I don't have the guts to make any myself ^_^

And if you're going to join the brush and lantern, it'd be fun to see you contributing to the monthly themes - there's no word limit or time limit, so. (Is unsubtly trying to push you into writing more fic, for very civic-minded purposes, of course)

[ratbones]

I just joined brush_and_lantern, hopefully I'll be contributing to that as well! <3

[ratbones]

Thanks! I'm going to check out some of the stuff I've missed on sid_guardian then. And I'll definitely be at your rewatchalong post tomorrow. :D

The icons thing seems fun (that happy Ye Zun is PRECIOUS) but quick question if you don't mind helping out my clueless ass - what's the etiquette for grabbing icons? I'll credit the maker in the icon comment thing, but is it generally cool to just use them without telling the person who made them, or do people have their own policies, or ????

Wow, was that fic really the first longform thing you completed? I am in awe.
tysm TTwTT i was flying by the seat of my pants

Physicists unite!
*high-five*

[ratbones]

Ohhh it's you, hello senpai! :P You have such pretty screennames. Not stalkery at all, I'm glad to see you here as well! I'm glad I'm not the only person who joined DW just recently for Guardian purposes, everyone seems so experienced here.

I will try my best to jump into discussions, at least the ones that I'm able to find. Like my post says, I've gone very rapidly from cave-dwelling hermit to gritting my teeth and making myself interact, and so far it's been 100% entirely a positive decision, so. More of that! Yes!

I just joined brush_and_lantern as well. No promisessss as so far the insomnia fairy who grants me stories hasn't really jumped in on prompts, but since it's so laid-back over there, it might work? I'll give it a shot!

(Is unsubtly trying to push you into writing more fic, for very civic-minded purposes, of course)
<3

[forestofglory]

<3 I hope you have fun there!

[extrapenguin]

All you generally need to do is say "icon by name" in the icon comment field! (Some people have separate policies, but those are mainly "drop a comment if you're taking an icon" IME.) If you want to be very polite, you can leave a comment on the original post that had the icons and praise some of them, but that's not expected.

[ratbones]

Okay, cool! Thank you so much.

[umadoshi]

Hello! ^_^ Yay for joining Dreamwidth!

[ratbones]

Hi! It's a whole new world for me. :o

[unrelaxing]

EEEEEE! I’m so excited to see you’ve made a dreamwidth, even if you don’t have much plans to post! And also am really happy about the role Guardian has played in writing and even in curing shyness — I feel similarly in that Guardian dragged me back into being actively fannish, and it’s been incredibly fun so far!

[ratbones]

I'm excited and still sort of bewildered to be here! There's been a bit of WHAT DOES THIS BUTTON DO, but I'm figuring it out, haha. Yess, Guardian has just been a big special weird amazing thing for me and I'm super happy to be doing that thing with such lovely people. <3

[umadoshi]

I hope you enjoy it here!

[ratbones]

Thanks! So far I'm having fun.