User:Settiai
Biography
(Nonbinary, she/they pronouns.)
I am, as I like to put it, multifannish with very eclectic tastes. I also obviously like to spend hours typing up summaries of my online and offline activities for the past two decades. What can I say? I get bored easily.
Growing up, I had a vague working knowledge of fandom (mainly the con aspect) thanks to my mother being a die hard sci-fi fan who wanted to make certain at least one of her children had the same tastes as her. I've been involved in online fandom since the late 90s, writing fanfiction since 1999, and vidding since 2002. I regularly attend Vividcon, and I'm a recurring participant in Yuletide. I've run several LJ communities in the past as well as a handful of fanfiction archives and writing resource sites. I also keep an extensive number of fanfiction favorites bookmarked on Pinboard, in hundreds of fandoms involving stories of all genres, ratings, and lengths.
When I first started actively participating in fandom, I had just turned 12. Not that I mentioned that fact to many people at the time (though I didn't deny it either, if anyone actually asked), which made for some interesting conversations with people who'd known me since my early days after I finally started admitting my age. Basically, because of how young I was when I first joined, fandom has become an intricate part of my life. I wouldn't be who I am now without fandom, and I honestly don't want to think about the kind of person I might have turned out to be otherwise.
I'm a fan of pretty much all genres. I love gen, het, slash, femslash, threesomes, and poly, as well as relationships that don't neatly fall under any of those categories due to the gender identity of the characters involved, and I'm open to even more complicated relationships. There's very little out there that surprises me or squicks me by this point. Like I said, I grew up in fandom.
Fannish Timeline
Mid-90s: I made up my own stories about various books, movies, and TV shows that I enjoyed, not fully understanding at the time that it was a precursor to writing fanfiction.
1999: Sometime during mid-fall, I accidentally stumbled across a website that hosted a half-dozen or so fics for Flint: The Time Detective while surfing the internet in the school library. The future was made. I started searching various anime webrings for websites that hosted fanfiction based on the series that I was watching at the time.
2000: I soon discovered Fanfiction.net where I begin reading Ronin Warriors fics as well. I then moved onto Digimon, and I began searching for sites other than FF.net that hosted fanfiction. This led me to the now defunct Digimon Spirit which was an affiliate of LELOLA.net at the time. I became a member of the site's staff, reading fanfiction for quality before allowing it to be posted on the site. Late in the year, I wrote my first (online - several others were written in '99 but never posted) fanfic for that fandom.
In April, I joined Neopets under the name pokewomon.
2001: By July, I had written a half dozen or so Digimon fanfics. I finally signed up for an account on FF.net and slowly began branching out. I began reading Gargoyles fic, where I was first introduced to the wonders of PWPs. In September or so, I began reading Hogan's Heroes fic and published my first story for the fandom in November. I joined the Hogan's Heroes SmartGroup (which later moved to Yahoo!Groups) where I discovered a true fannish community for the first time. It was also around this time that I began reading Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfiction. Despite not being much of a 'shipper at the time, I joined Crumbling Walls, the major Spike/Buffy forum, where my obsession with the Jossverse grew by leaps and bounds.
2002: I published my first Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfic in March, followed soon after by a handful of short Barney Miller, Dragonball Z, Gummi Bears, and Lord of the Rings pieces. Over the next several months, most of my time was spent alternating among the Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Digimon, and Hogan's Heroes fandoms.
In June, I was given an invite code so that I could create my LiveJournal. Around that same time, I discovered vidding. I stumbled across bonibaru's vids and was instantly hooked. I joined Nummy Treat, the Yahoo!Group for Jossverse vidding, and posted my first vid in August. Soon afterward, I found my way over to the now defunct We Band of Buggered forums. I also began lurking in the Firefly fandom before the first episode ever aired.
2003: My list of main fandoms switched almost completely over to Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with some brief forays into Lord of the Rings - mainly involving The Mellon Chronicles and stories that were obviously inspired by that series. This continued until July, when I began frequently writing 100 word drabbles for various smaller fandoms as well as longer pieces for my main ones.
I fell in love with the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novels just prior to the movie coming out, and I was even willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. I set up League of Extraordinary Fanfiction, which eventually split into a fanfiction archive and a writers' resource. I also loved Peacemakers when it began airing on USA, and I joined the fledgling fandom. In September, I created a general LiveJournal community for the show. It was around this time that I began participating in the NCIS fandom as well.
It was also around then that I began tentatively tiptoeing around the Harry Potter fandom, despite the fact that I'd been reading the books for years by that point. Ginny/Hermione became the first femslash story that I wrote, having previously written nothing but gen or het. In August, I participated in my first ficathon - little did I know it would be far from the last. Around that time, I also became active in The Sentinel fandom. I also began following Better Buffy Fics.
Around this time, I came up with the idea behind Angel: Changes in Seasons. I brainstormed with a few friends before asking for volunteers in November who would be willing to help with the project.
2004: In March, the first of virtual episode of Angel: Changes in Seasons went live. Then, in June, I wrote my first slash fic - a short Gargoyles story. Over the summer, I added Baby-Sitters Club and JAG to my list of written fandoms. I also became much more involved with Harry Potter.
Although I was raised as a Trekkie/Trekker, I didn't begin participating in the Star Trek fandom at large until 2004 or so. I helped work on The Nexus, a Star Trek rec community on Yahoo! Groups that was based on Better Buffy Fics, and wrote a few Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fics in the autumn.
I joined the Lost fandom around this time and also began to rekindle my fannish roots when I started rewriting some of my early Digimon stories as well as writing a few new ones, this time using names and plot points from the Japanese version rather than the English dub as I'd finally been able to get my hands on a subbed version of the series.
2005: Early in the year, my fannish time was spent mainly alternating between Harry Potter and the combined universe of Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I began experimenting with crossovers as well as fics featuring threesomes. In May, I began writing fanfiction for Star Trek: Enterprise. I even began writing fics featuring characters from Neopets.
It was around this time that I began re-familiarizing myself with my "pre-fandom" fandoms - that is, the shows that I loved growing up but had never really been active in their fandoms because they had ended before I discovered online fandom. This included ones such as Babylon 5, Due South, The Magnificent Seven, SeaQuest DSV, and Starsky & Hutch. For many of these, I began searching eBay for fanzines.
I became involved in the House, M.D. fandom over the summer. The release of Serenity reawakened my love of the Firefly fandom, and I wrote a large number of stories featuring its characters. Even though I had been running the LXF archive for two years, I didn't write fanfiction for the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen fandom until late autumn of this year. In September, I began watching Stargate SG-1. I soon became involved in that fandom as well. I also stopped lurking in The Invisible Man fandom, finally writing my first fic late in the year. In December, I participated in the I Saw Three Ships holiday fic exchange for threesomes for the first time.
This year marked the real beginning of my somewhat ridiculous multifannishness, which hit record highs once I graduated from high school and started my first semester of college. January through December, I wrote stories featuring fifteen different fandoms.
2006: At the very beginning of the year, I finished catching up on Stargate SG-1 and moved over to Stargate Atlantis. I quickly became very fannish in the latter, and my level of activeness in the former increased as well.
In March, I caught the first episode of the new revival of Doctor Who on the Sci-Fi Channel. Over the next few days, I marathoned the entire 2005 run so that I could watch the 2006 series as it aired. By the end of the summer, I was making my way through old school canon at a fairly scary rate. By the end of the year, I had seen almost every old school serial, had listened to many of the Big Finish audios, and had a working knowledge of the serials, audios, comics, EDAs, etc. that I hadn't managed to get my hands on yet. When Torchwood aired, I quickly added it to my list of fandoms.
I branched out into several new/old fandoms throughout the year. I returned to my Barney Miller roots with a few short stories and also wrote stories for Fullmetal Alchemist and Narnia. Throughout the year, I continued to write Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer stories, though the numbers dwindled in the later months, as well as many of my staple fandoms. I began the practice of participating in the semi-regular Percy Weasley Ficathon in the Harry Potter fandom.
In August, I attended Vividcon for the first time. A few months later, I set up the Doctor Who Random Pairing Generator. I once again wrote for I Saw Three Ships in December, and I added Yuletide to my list of holiday fic exchanges as well.
2007: For the most part, I continued writing fandoms that I was already familiar with throughout the year. I began reading fanfiction in several others as I became familiar with them (for example: Dark Angel, Dresden Files, Life on Mars, Psych, and Supernatural), but I didn't branch out into writing for them.
Doctor Who steadily took over my brain as the year progressed. The release of the final book brought me back into the Harry Potter fandom, but - except for my regular story for the Percy Weasley Ficathon - I mainly remained a lurker. Late in the year, I started rekindling my love for Hogan's Heroes.
In August, I attended Vividcon for the second year running. By this point, I was more of a vid watcher than a vidder but I kept swearing to go back to it.
Highlander joined the list of "pre-fandom" fandoms that I became reacquainted with, and I wrote several stories for the fandom over the holiday season. I once again participated in I Saw Three Ships and Yuletide.
2008: For the majority of the year, the Doctor Who universe continued to have a hold over the majority of my fandom time - which as, admittedly, significantly less than usual because of it being my final year in college. I participated in the TARDIS Big Bang project, which led to me not only writing my first 20,000+ word (non-WIP) story but also creating my first vid in over four years. In May, I set up whoniverse1000 which was based on the buffyverse1000 community of several years earlier.
August marked my third year attending Vividcon, and soon afterward I began branching out into new fandoms once again. Heroes joined the list, as did Merlin and Tin Man. I also rewatched Farscape for the first time since it had completed its original run.
December marked my graduation from college with an undergraduate degree, as well as another year of participation in I Saw Three Ships and Yuletide.
2009: In early January, The Mentalist and Zettai Karen Children were added to my list of fandoms. My activeness in fandom was markedly smaller for the first six months of the year, thanks to my ongoing job search.
The release of the new Star Trek film rekindled my love of the Trekiverse, with the Torchwood S3 miniseries doing the same for my love of the Whoniverse. By mid-summer, I was well on my way to becoming active in fandom again.
The new Watchmen film convinced me to go back and reread those comics, which I hadn't done for some time. This brought about a renewed interest in comics in general for me. In June, I began reading Marvel comics for the first time in close to ten years thanks to certain events in X-Factor Investigations. Since then, I have become reacquainted with many different aspects of the Marvel multiverse.
I once again attended Vividcon in August, which led to me finally watching The West Wing and lurking in the fandom. I was one of the first to sign up for an Archive of Our Own account when it went into open beta in November and immediately began uploading my fics to the site. Around the same time, I started watching Criminal Minds and quickly caught up with the current season.
Once again, I signed Yuletide and I Saw Three Ships, as well as several Marvel-based ficathons on LiveJournal. Considering the fact that I was planning an 800 mile move to Washington D.C. in January 2010, questioning my sanity was quite valid at the time.
2010: Once the aforementioned 800 mile move was completed, I spent the next few months unemployed. This period led me to get into several new fandoms, mostly Leverage and White Collar. My addiction to Marvel Comics grew even more, and I began seriously playing catch-up when it came to several titles. Sometime that spring, I also started reading DC Comics as well.
That August, I attended Vividcon for the fifth year in a row, submitting a fanvid for the Premiere show for the first time. As always, I walked away with a new (to me) fandom, this time in the form of Smallville. Soon after, I fell in love with the new Hawaii Five-0 as well.
As always, I signed Yuletide and I Saw Three Ships in December, as well as - once again - several Marvel-based ficathons.
2011: March saw the addition of yet another new fandom to my list, this time in the form of Community. The majority of my fannish time in the spring was spent focusing on Doctor Who, DC Comics, and Marvel Comics.
I once again attended Vividcon in August, submitting a premiering fanvid for the second year in a row.
Mid-fall, I became hooked on the anime series Tiger & Bunny, which led to me taking a look at my anime fannish roots. I began rewatching several series that I'd watched years earlier, and I also re-read quite a few manga series that I hadn't thought about in some time.
As always, I signed Yuletide and I Saw Three Ships in December, as well as - once again - several DC and Marvel-based ficathons.
2012: For the first time, I participated in Festivids.
I attended Vividcon in August and promptly fell headfirst into the Once Upon a Time fandom in the aftermath.
The Avengers brought about a resurgence of love for Marvel Comics, and I spent quite a bit of the summer involved with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I ended up making several vids for the MCU and adding many bookmarks to pinboard.
As always, I signed Yuletide and I Saw Three Ships in December, as well as - once again - several DC and Marvel-based ficathons.
I also fell hopelessly in love with The Hobbit, which led to me falling headfirst not only into that fandom but back into Lord of the Rings for the first time in years as well.
2013: For the second year running, I participated in Festivids. Fannish activity in general died down during the first half of the year, thanks to real life getting in the way. My obsession with The Hobbit continued, and I fell somewhat in love with Rise of the Guardians, but overall I was mostly a consumer rather than a creator. Then, over the the summer, I fell headfirst into Mass Effect and didn't look back.
As usual, I signed up to attend Vividcon in August. I signed up for the Femslash Exchange in the autumn, and I participated in both Yuletide and I Saw Three Ships in December.
2014: My obsession with Mass Effect continued pretty much the entire year. I discovered Star Wars Rebels late in the year.
I attended Vividcon in August, as usual. I once again participated in the Femslash Exchange in the autumn and Yuletide when December rolled around. With I Saw Three Ships no longer in the picture, I instead participated in Holly Poly, which was created to replace it.
2015: I participated in Festivids, after taking off the previous year. My obsession with Mass Effect continued throughout the early part of the year before it transferred over to Dragon Age. Almost all of my fannish attention was focused on those two fandoms, with a few brief forays into Star Wars Rebels which rekindled my general Star Wars love.
I attended Vividcon in August, as usual, and for once I had a premiering vid. As was becoming the usual by that point, I participated in the Femslash Exchange in the autumn as well as Yuletide and Holly Poly when December rolled around.
2016: Dragon Age and Mass Effect continued to be my main fandoms, although I discovered Critical Role early in the year and it joined the list. Starting in the fall, I began playing D&D 5e after previously playing a little bit of 3.5 back in high school before quickly deciding it wasn't for me (mostly due to the group I was playing with). I joined a regular campaign on Friday nights called Fate Touched and began writing a fair bit of original(ish) fiction based on our games.
As usual, I attended Vividcon in August. Exchange-wise, I participated in Spectre Requisitions, the Femslash Exchange, Yuletide, and Holly Poly.
2017: Critical Role, Dragon Age, and Mass Effect continued to be my main fandoms outside of the occasional foray into older fandoms of mine for exchange purposes. D&D continued to play an important in my fannishness as I added another weekly game on Sunday nights. In December, I joined a group of Critical Role fans for a D&D one shot at the last minute due to my Friday game being unexpectedly cancelled that night.
As usual, I attended Vividcon in August. xchange-wise, I participated in Spectre Requisitions, The Black Emporium, the Femslash Exchange, Yuletide, and Holly Poly.
2018: Critical Role, Dragon Age, and Mass Effect continued to be my main fandoms outside of the occasional foray into older fandoms of mine for exchange purposes. D&D became an even larger part of my life, as my Friday game switched to bi-weekly (and soon came to an end, but the same players picked up with a new replacement campaign) so I was able to join the new campaign that had spun off from the one shot in December 2017 and play each game on alternating weeks. I also joined an in-person game biweekly on Sunday afternoons, in addition to my regular Sunday night game, and I began DMing a game on Saturday nights.
I attended the last Vividcon that August, premiering two vids - one for due South and one for Tin Man. Exchange wise, I participated in Spectre Requisitions, The Black Emporium, the Femslash Exchange, Yuletide, The Critmas Exchange, and Holly Poly. In addition, I took over running Holly Poly as the mod.
2019: Critical Role, Dragon Age, and Mass Effect continued to be my main fandoms outside of the occasional foray into older fandoms of mine for exchange purposes. While D&D played a large role in my week, my in-person Sunday afternoon game ended and the Saturday night game that I DMed became much more sporadic as people's schedules stopped cooperating. That campaign went on hiatus later in the year, with us playing semi-regular one shots for several months for those who could make it (as well as people from my other campaigns) before tapering off completely. My two Friday night games and my Sunday night game continued as normal.
I began writing (and posting) more original short stories that year. Exchange wise, I participated in Spectre Requisitions, The Black Emporium, the Femslash Exchange, Yuletide, The Critmas Exchange, and I both participated in and ran Holly Poly.
As of January 1, I began running a Critical Role side account on Twitter called CritRoleFanart, where I retweeted all fanart posted to the various main tags on Twitter. This was due to many artists leaving Tumblr due to its new policies.
2020: Oh, 2020. Critical Role, Dragon Age, and Mass Effect continued to be my main fandoms, with me still dipping into other fandoms mostly for exchange purposes. I submitted a Due South vid for Escapade in February. D&D continued to play a large role in my life. While one of my Friday night campaigns came to an end, the other decided to become weekly since I was going to be available to play every week. My Sunday game continued as before.
Exchange wise, I participated in Spectre Requisitions, The Black Emporium, the Femslash Exchange, A Paragon of Their Kind, Yuletide, the Critmas Exchange, and I both participated in and ran Holly Poly.
I continued to run CritRoleFanart on Twitter.
2021: Critical Role, Dragon Age, and Mass Effect continued to be my main fandoms. As in previous years, D&D also played a large role in my life, as both my Sunday and Friday campaigns came to and end with us reaching level 20, only to be replaced by new campaigns where we started out at a much, much, much lower level. I also began playing in a weekly Wednesday night campaign.
Exchange wise, I participated in Spectre Requisitions, A Paragon of Their Kind, Pod Together, The Summer Wildflower Exchange, The Black Emporium, the Dragon Age Poly Exchange, the Femslash Exchange, the Critmas Exchange, and Yuletide, and I both participated in and ran Holly Poly.
I continued to run CritRoleFanart on Twitter.
2022: I stepped down from running Holly Poly early in the year and offered it up to any takers who wished to run the exchange going forward.
Critical Role, Dragon Age, and Mass Effect continued to be my main fandoms. As in previous years, D&D also played a large role in my life, as I continued my Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday campaigns and also added a monthly Saturday campaign to my schedule.
Exchange wise, I participated in Dragon Age: The Platonic Ideal, Spectre Requisitions, the Arlathan Exchange, The Black Emporium, the Dragon Age Poly Exchange, the Femslash Exchange, Yuletide, the Critmas Exchange, and Holly Poly.
I continued to run CritRoleFanart on Twitter.
2023: Critical Role, Dragon Age, and Mass Effect continue to be my main fandoms. Exchange wise, so far I've participated in Dragon Age: The Platonic Ideal and Spectre Requisitions and am signed up for the Dragon Age Big Bang and the Arlathan Exchange.
I continue to run CritRoleFanart on Twitter.
Fandom-Related Sites
Archive of Our Own: fanfiction, fanvids, and original fiction
Dreamwidth: blog
Instagram: random pics
LiveJournal: blog (no longer actively used)
Pinboard: bookmarks
Settiai.com: personal website
Tumblr: blog (no longer actively used)
Twitter: random tweets
CritRoleFanart: side account on Twitter
YouTube: fanvids