I'm tired and have a hurt wrist and a lot of fanfic to type up, so you're getting bullet points

[apiphile]

I am in a really good mood in spite of the weather and the trains and the cunting Geordies and the several hour sleep debt. A really good mood. I almost don't want to check my email in case I run into something that ruins it.

Also deciding to stay sitting in a completely different part of the train to my boyfriend and LRG was the smart choice, because it meant I a) slept and b) wrote but mostly c) stared out of the window and was impressed by landscape.

Holy fuck Edinburgh is beautiful. Beautiiiiiiiiful. Architecturally and geographically beautiful. Also you can see THE EYE OF SAURON from atropinesulfate's flat which, when you are rolling in drunk and exhausted at 2am, is an unsettling sight. Like, WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT MASSIVE FIRE ON THE HORIZON IS SCOTLAND ACTUALLY HELL HELP WHAT.

I have been through three major towns/cities beginning with D on the train in the last couple of days - Darlington, Doncaster, and Durham - and they all look perfectly hideous although I think it was a tie between Newcastle and Peterborough for Place I Liked the Look of Least; Berwick-on-Tweed surprisingly pretty. Also I saw a DEER on the way home. That was excite.

Derby was a classic example of precisely the kind of bout I enjoy watching - plenty of drama and difficulty and packwork and excellent skating but at no time did LRG: Brawl Saints look even remotely like they were going to lose. Priceless precious jewel.

Also during half-time there was a smallish girl, preteen/teenager, who came out and sang a song I feel I would know if I ever listened to the radio at all, with a fake American accent but really, really well. I feel sort of cross on her behalf that they initially gave her a microphone with an OFF SWITCH ON IT (never do this) and so she had to start a second time. Handled it very well, too.

A lovely night out with atropinesulfate and pipistrelle which involved cocktails (Treacle: Sherbert Martini [brilliantly deranged drink with a lollipop in it] and a Mandarin Smash), curry (Mother India: can't remember what I ate but there was a lot of it and all of it was delicious), and vodka shots (Secret Arcade: vodka shots were made of lies, while the Wisniowka was definitely what it said it was, the "almond vodka" was amaretto and the peppermint vodka was creme de menthe), and a lot of anecdotes involving animal poo.

pipistrelle went home, the anecdotes about poo did not in any way stop.

I had one of those drunken ideas that seems perfectly sensible at the time, and decided we should go and watch X-Men. We went via a Slug & Lettuce because it was close, and because they had cheap margaritas.

I have more thoughts about the damn film:
* About the only person and the only time Charles ever actually asks to enter anyone's mind it's Erik, once, and even then he is vague and clearly expects his wish to be granted.

* Erik's hideous smile when he kills the Nazis in Argentina, I honestly cannot get over how angry it is and how much scarier it makes him.

* Erik's obvious connection to his identity as a Jewish man is replaced by the end of the movie - at the beginning he tells the Swiss banker how the Nazi gold is "all that is left of my people", but by the end he is no longer Erik Lehnsherr, Wronged Jew. He is Magneto, Wroned Mutant. His anger, feelings of injustice and desire for self-protection against demonstrably hostile world remain constant but his self-identity shifts.

* He first mentions "Frankenstein's monster" in Argentina, citing Schmidt/Shaw as his creator. In retrospect, it's a very apposite choice of comparison as the monster in the story begins as an innocent, neutral thing whose murderous rage comes about as a result of rejection, hostility and ill-treatment at the hands of prejudiced villagers who are repulsed by this different creature in their midst. It makes me want to reconsider my usual analogies/metaphors about the werewolf and instead talk about how people 'like me' are made as well as born. Yes I do overidentify with certain aspects to a ridiculous degree.

* So many things Charles says and does which are punchable and rotten and which no one ever takes him to task for. How am I meant to come out on his side rather than being won over by Magneto's admittedly pompous rhetoric at the end?

* I agree with the reviewer who said that Erik's kiss with Raven seemed to be more about a gesture of solidarity than one of attraction.

TBQH, that is mostly "I have feelings about Erik" again. I also have feelings about Eric Northman. I think I just like Erikcs.

Because I apparently don't know when to STOP talking once I've started I was still drunkenly rabbiting about Brian Cox and pianos at about 3am while being very, very impressed by a) the explosion of glow-in-the-dark stars in atropinesulfate's flat and b) how enormously noisy small grey fluffpuddle Is the squeakbox cat is. Oh and c) what the fuck, pigeons.

I had elderflower and raspberry jelly and toast for breakfast because I AM AN ADULT AND I DO WHAT I WANT.

Did I mention that Edinburgh is fucking stunning?

So yeah, it's just been overall a really, really good weekend. Which I needed in more ways than I can describe. Also I have travelled pretty much the entire length of the England bit of the UK twice and can safely say goddamn, I don't know about "pleasant" but this is one GREEN ASS LAND.

(I still have legit no idea how I hurt my wrist so badly but it fucking hurts.)