Hummingbird Cottage Updates

May. 29th, 2025 08:09 am
osprey_archer: (cheers)
[personal profile] osprey_archer
Important Hummingbird Cottage updates! First, I am sad to report that the geese after all decided not to nest on the pond, presumably flying off in search of a larger pool. However, the pond is still frequently visited by ducks and geese, and also a red hawk which swooped across the pond and snatched something small and dark from the rocks. You go, red-shouldered hawk! Keep the small rodent population in check!

The flowers have begun to blossom. Velvety purple irises, blue-violet columbines, yellow roses, lovely gold-pink roses like a sunrise, these last outside the window of the downstairs bedroom, which at last forced me to remove the mattress blocking the window -

I have not yet told the story of the mattress. So. At a mattress fundraiser for my old high school, I bought a queen size mattress on clearance, only to discover upon delivery that my bed frame was, in fact, a full. This ended with the mattress leaning against the window for a month, until the roses forced my hand, and I took apart the old bedframe and lowered the new mattress to the floor, where it will reside till I get an appropriately sized bedframe.

(Hilariously, a week after my mattress misadventure, my former roommate bought a new mattress for a bedframe that was surely a full. But NO. That bedframe was in fact a queen.

One would like this to end with the trading of the bed frames, but Julie understandably wished to keep the charming wooden sleigh bed and therefore cut it down to size.)

The weeds are getting away from me, in particular the lemon balm (a variety of mint that is spreading all along the shady north side of the house). However, yesterday evening I did get rosemary and chives from the farmer’s market, which I planted, having cleverly come out through the garage in order to keep Bramble inside… only to look up from planting the rosemary at the sound of a happy meow. Bramble trotted past, intent on exploring the neighbor’s patio, which I must admit I’ve also been curious about, so I followed him nothing loath.

The Hummingbird Cottage is half of a duplex - all the houses in this condominium development are, except the ones that are fourplexes - but I’ve never seen the neighbors in the other half of my duplex. Nor have I heard any noise from their half of the house, seen their car, or seen a trash can pulled to the curb by their driveway.

Through the patio door as I chased Bramble (happily hiding under an overgrown bush), I saw a dining room set with a jacket draped over a chair, so someone must live there at least occasionally? A mystery.

Bramble eventually scampered down to the pond, and then apparently decided he’d had enough, as he docilely allowed me to pick him up and deposit him inside. Possibly all that water was a little alarming. I finished planting the rosemary and chives and contemplated the best place for a cherry tomato plant, but as I have not yet acquired said plant, that is a problem for another day.

Also, I found the perfect little wicker cart for my houseplants! Admittedly there is currently only one houseplant, but now that I have a home for more they will surely come into my life. The cart is currently a somewhat battered yellow and needs a wash and a coat of white spray paint, but it was only twenty dollars at the secondhand shop, and anyway how often do you see a charming wheeled wicker cart for sale anywhere?

Weather and Climate Livestream

May. 29th, 2025 02:08 am
mxcatmoon: Dukes Waterfall (Dukes Waterfall)
[personal profile] mxcatmoon posting in [community profile] thisfinecrew
There's so many bad things going on requiring our attention that the cuts/firing in the meteorology and climate science communities gets less attention, but having a fully staffed NOAA is an important issue. Right now, there is a 100-hour livestream going on to call attention to how vital these services are, especially as hurricane season is upon us.  I have it on in the background right now.

What can we do? Watch the livestream, call our Representatives, and go to 5 Calls for sample script/letters.

Info and schedule: The Weather and Climate Livestream

Direct YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rG4ePBqD-E

Daily Happiness

May. 28th, 2025 11:29 pm
torachan: nepeta from homestuck (nepeta)
[personal profile] torachan
1. Finally done with the last of the yearly evaluations today.

2. Carla took some old games and the Wii U to Book Off today and was able to get some cash for them. (She took the PS2 as well, but apparently we were missing a cord, so they wouldn't take it. Will have to look around the house and see if it's here anywhere. If we can't find it, I'll probably just put it out on the curb.)

3. Despite the crowds we had a nice dinner at Disneyland tonight.

4. Molly!

2025 Disneyland Trip #36 (5/28/25)

May. 28th, 2025 10:49 pm
torachan: (Default)
[personal profile] torachan
We went down after work today and had a very nice dinner but omg the crowds were terrible. It's a Grad Nite, so there were tons of teens, and tomorrow is the last day the lowest level of keyholders can go until the second week of August so they're getting their last visits in.

Read more... )

(no subject)

May. 28th, 2025 07:57 pm
lycomingst: (Default)
[personal profile] lycomingst
The “put up a new fence” boys are here and have just about finished the job. Looks good. And I discovered my neighbor has a cherry tree. I am envious. I am out in the yard every day for about an hour or two. But the weeds and bushes are on a at least eight hour day and they’re racing ahead of me.

I took my first bath here last night. As opposed to the shower. I wanted to pumice stone my feet which are very hard skinned on the heels. The tub isn’t big but then I am not tall. I enjoyed it.

The Park has told me that I am on the list to have the very large, very dead tree in my backyard removed, at their expense. Later this summer. That will leave another stump but my plan involves having whatever I can afford ground down, in the future.
reeby10: 'don't worry what people think they don't do it very often' in grey with 'think' and 'often' in red (Default)
[personal profile] reeby10
20 Doctor Robotnik from Sonic the Hedgehog icons for [community profile] characters20in20

Preview:


*Icons are free for use.
*Credit and comments are nice.

Read more... )

Fandom5K Pinch Hits due 28 June

May. 28th, 2025 09:04 pm
longficmod: Photo of a woman tying a running shoe (Default)
[personal profile] longficmod posting in [community profile] pinchhits
Event: Fandom5K s a multi-fandom gift exchange for fic with a 5,000-word minimum and comics with a 5-page minimum
Event link: Rules and FAQ on AO3
Pinch hit link: At the DW community
Due date: 28 June, with a required check-in during the week of 7-14 June

Pinch hits available:

PH 2 - Blue Lock (Manga), 終わりのセラフ | Owari no Seraph | Seraph of the End (Anime & Manga), Fairy Tail

PH 5 - Temeraire - Naomi Novik, The Inheritance Cycle - Christopher Paolini, His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

PH 7 - Dial M for Murder (1954), To Catch a Thief (1955), Dial M for Murder - Hatcher

PH 8 - Path of Night (Podcast), Vampire: The Masquerade - Various Authors (Choice of Games), Vampire: The Masquerade Port Saga (Podcast)

PH 9 - 終わりのセラフ | Owari no Seraph | Seraph of the End (Anime & Manga), Blue Lock (Manga), Fairy Tail

PH 13 - The Elementalists (Visual Novel), Heart of Battle - Fay Ikin, Royal Affairs - Harris-Powell-Smith

PH 15 - Code Vein (Video Game), 神さまのいない日曜日 | Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi | Sunday Without God (Anime & Manga), Octopath Traveler II (Video Game), 刀使ノ巫女 | Toji no Miko | Katana Maidens (Anime), よるのないくに | Yoru no Nai Kuni | Nights of Azure (Video Games), Xenoblade Chronicles (Video Game)

PH 17 - Breaking Bad, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), The Godfather (1972 1974 1990)

PH 18 - Ancient History RPF, Solstice (MoaCube Visual Novel), Crossover Fandom

PH 19 - Ace Combat (Video Games), Dishonored (Video Games), Warhammer 40k (Novels) - Various Authors

PH 20 - ATEEZ (Band), Blink-182 (Band), Men's Basketball RPF

PH 24 - Biggles Series - W. E. Johns, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Original Work

PH 25 - The Pitt (TV), The Faculty (1998), All Elite Wrestling

wednesday reads and things

May. 28th, 2025 05:05 pm
isis: Isis statue (statue)
[personal profile] isis
What I've recently finished reading:

A Drop of Corruption, the sequel to The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. I liked it a lot (Din and Ana are great characters!), and I thought it was easier to follow than the first book, in the sense that I figured out the major twists and culprits before they happened (which is not a criticism, it means the appropriate breadcrumbs were dropped). The worldbuilding continues to be very weird and cool. Definitely one of the best Sherlock Holmes fanfics I've read! :-)

What I'm reading now:

I've gone back to the Shardlake series by C. J. Sansom and am now on the fifth book, Heartstone.

What I'm watching now:

Still Andor. The other night I dreamed we were giving a party, except our house was basically Mon Mothma's house on Chandrila and the party was like the wedding episode. And then I went into the bathroom to change clothes and I noticed that my husband had left the tap dripping water so the cats could drink it, just like in real life :-) And then I woke up.

What I'm playing now:

Still Mass Effect: Andromeda, heading toward the endgame. It's still fun! Except for having to kill another Architect, which is basically the thresher maw of the Andromeda galaxy, and I still hate both of those enemies!

Wednesday What I'm...

May. 28th, 2025 03:58 pm
reeby10: the lower half of a person laying on grass and reading with the words 'time to escape' and a ripped looking border (reading)
[personal profile] reeby10
For the past two weeks, since I forgot to post last week!

Reading
  • I read Gentle Writing Advice: How to Be a Writer Without Destroying Yourself by Chuck Wendig. I thought it was very good even if none of the advice was really an aha moment for me or anything. It was fun seeing how clear his blogging style is in the book, since I haven't read any of his fiction yet.
  • I read Bleach Volume 4 and Bleach Volume 5, by Tite Kubo. Pretty fun.
  • I finished You and Me and the Airbnb by Rena Butler. Pretty good! I liked the setting a lot.
  • I finished Thrawn: Alliances by Timothy Zahn, book 2 of the Star Wars: Thrawn series. This was a reread because I wanted to read the third book, which I never got around to last time I was reading this series. A good book, and much funnier than I remembered it, though much of that might have been unintentional lol
  • I started rereading Lirael by Garth Nix, because someday I'd like to read the newer books in the series and I wanted a refresh. Still great!
  • Ficwise, I spent most of last week reading/rereading Toy Story fic because I had a sudden desire for Sid/Andy. Good stuff, and I finally read The Fic of the fandom. Otherwise, I've been reading Stobotnik. Right now I'm on a time loop fic that my friend recommended me and I'm... not loving it.
Watching
  • The roommate made me watch The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, which are some of her favorite movies. I did enjoy them a lot, though Angels & Demons more so. Very fun and silly.
  • The roommate and I went to see Clown in a Cornfield in theaters. It was a lot more difficult than I expected bc apparently it didn't get a very big release. And I'm sad to say I didn't like it very much :( Like it was probably fine and there were some fun moments, but they changed so much from the book and the book is so fucking good that it didn't stand up for me at all.
  • The roommate and I went to a GCW show in Maryland. The vibes were uhhhh not great, what with the guys near us shouting homophobic/sexist/racist shit. Also just a weird show compared to our admittedly amazing first, with no blood and few props.
  • AEW as usual, plus a PPV on Sunday. I was not excited when I saw the card, but it ended up being a really good show! There were of course some annoyances (Mercedes winning, the men's Owen Hart final being treated as more important than the women's), but overall the matches were a lot of fun and had outcomes I was happy about. Plus Hook is back! And Toni and Mariah kissed!
Listening
  • I was feeling nostalgic for some sad boy music, so I listen to Jack's Mannequin, We The Kings, and Yellowcard at various times over the past couple of weeks.
Writing
  • I wrote my [personal profile] summerofhorrorexchange  assignment way ahead of schedule. It was fun and I really hope my giftee likes it :D
  • I've written most of my [community profile] idproquo  assignment. I'm not sure how much I have left, but I don't think I'll go much further with the story because I want to keep the focus on the main friendship, not their love interests.
  • For my goal of writing a fic for every book I read this year, I wrote a fic for Wolf Wing by Tanith Lee.
  • On the same goal, I wrote a fic for Clown in a Cornfield. I wanted to get it done and posted before seeing the movie, so you can read it here if you like.
rachelmanija: (Books: old)
[personal profile] rachelmanija


Sciona, the first woman ever admitted to the University of Magic, takes on Thomil, a janitor from a discriminated-against culture, as her lab assistant, and they both learn dark secrets about their world.

Thomil is introduced when his clan makes a desperate run across deadly ground to get to the safety of a city surrounded by a magical shield. The shield protects against bitter cold and the deadly Blight, which randomly zaps and dissolves people, but the area around the city is particularly Blight-infested. Only Thomil and his baby niece survive. When they arrive, they find that the city natives hate their race and has consigned them all as a permanent underclass.

Ten years later, Sciona, a well-to-do young woman in the city, is preparing for her magic exam to try to get into the sexist magic university, which no woman has ever passed. Though she does pass, all the male mages but her mentor hate her and hassle her. The only other person who's even remotely nice to her is Thomil, the janitor, who is assigned as her lab assistant as a cruel joke. But though Sciona is racist and classist, and Thomil is mildly sexist in an oblivious way, they find that they kind of get along...

Wang has an engaging, easy-read style for the most part, the intros to the two main characters are quite compelling, and despite the heavy-handed axes of privilege themes, Thomil and Sciona have a nice dynamic.

I said "for the most part." The exception is the magic system, which I think is basically computer programming via magic typewriters (spellographs). The wizards program a spell to access a specific area of the magical Otherrealm (which they can't see or sense in any way, so they're just plotting points on a grid) to grab magical energy or matter from it. But we get MUCH more detailed and lengthy descriptions of it, from long explanations to actual spells:

CONDITION 1: DEVICE is 15 Vendric feet higher than its position at the time of activation.

ACTION 1: FIRE will siphon from POWER an amount of energy no lower than 4.35 and no higher than 4.55 on the Leonic scale.

ACTION 2: FIRE will siphon within the distance of DEVICE no higher than 3 Vendric inches.

If and only if CONDITION 1 is met, ACTION 1 and ACTION 2 will go into effect.


The first half is Sciona and Thomil working on various spells, interspersed with very heavy-handed commentary on colonialism, sexism, and how Sciona totally gets feminism when it applies to her personally but is oblivious to all other isms. Sciona is an awful, self-centered person and Thomil is mostly perfect. Almost exactly halfway through, there is a shocking reveal. At least, it shocked many readers. It did not shock me.

Read more... )

Despite what the plot description sounds like, Sciona and Thomil do not have a romance beyond occasional sexy feelings. It's a magical dystopia/dark academia, I think similar to Babel (which I could not get very far into) but less anvillicious in that it does not have literal footnotes saying stuff like "This is a racist comment and racism is bad." (In the bookshop, I have Blood Over Bright Haven tagged "If you like Babel you will like this.") Sadly for M. L. Wang, this comparative subtlety got them some reviews on Goodreads accusing them of condoning Sciona being a bad person and endorsing her beliefs.

I did not care for this book but I can see how it would work for many readers, especially if they're shocked by the twist at the halfway mark.

Activity #94 - Technique Waterfall

May. 28th, 2025 07:18 pm
tinny: Something Else holding up its colorful drawing - "be different" (Default)
[personal profile] tinny posting in [community profile] icontalking


I don't feel up to Ask the Maker yet, so first we'll have a short activity until mid-June (and then Ask the Maker).

Now we'll make sets of icons following water down a waterfall! Under the cut, there is a list of techniques in the shape of a waterfall.

technique waterfall! )

Rules:

* You have to start at the top (on any square that has no other directly above it, not necessarily the top left) and then go straight down or diagonally down. Make one icon for each square you come across (of course using that technique). It's your choice where you start, and whether you go straight down or diagonal on each step. You can go both left-down or right-down. Just never go horizontally or up.

* Each set of icons has to be of consecutive squares you come across on the way from top to bottom. You don't have to go all the way down - you can start at the top and only make two icons, that's okay. Minimum set size is two icons.

* If you want to make more than one set, you can. You can choose a new starting point (has to be one of the top squares) for each set.

Please ask me if you have any questions. Let me know if there's a problem with the graphic, I can also provide the techniques as plain text.

* You can make as many icons as you like (if you need a goal, five is a good number :))
* There is no minimum, 1 icon is enough to enter this activity
* Please submit your icons (and URLs!) to this post, all in one comment (if possible)
* Everyone can participate, you don't have to be a member of this community

* I will collect all the icons from the comments and make a result post
* Everyone can leave comments on the inspiration and activity result posts
* There is no voting

Deadline: Saturday, June 14 2025, your end-of-day

Read-in-Progress Wednesday

May. 28th, 2025 09:52 am
geraineon: (Default)
[personal profile] geraineon posting in [community profile] cnovels
This is your weekly read-in-progress post for you to talk about what you're currently reading and reactions and feelings (if any)!

For spoilers:

<details><summary>insert summary</summary>Your spoilers goes here</details>

<b>Highlight for spoilers!*</b><span style="background-color: #FFFFFF; color: #FFFFFF">Your spoilers goes here.</span>*

Wednesday Reading Meme

May. 28th, 2025 08:49 am
osprey_archer: (books)
[personal profile] osprey_archer
What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Rebecca Romney’s Jane Austen’s Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector’s Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend, in which Romney tracks down many of the books Jane Austen admired (often as ebooks, which I must admit takes much of the romance out of the rare book hunt) and discovers many lost gems of literary excellence. (And also Hannah More, whom she did not take to.) An engrossing read.

D. E. Stevenson’s Mrs. Tim Gets a Job. Like all of D. E. Stevenson’s novels, this is cozy like sitting curled up in an armchair by the fire with a cup of cocoa while a thunderstorm beats against the window in the night. It’s not that she’s writing in a world where bad things don’t happen, or even where bad things don’t happen to our heroes, but by the end of the book it will all turn out right.

Amerika: Russian Writers View the United States, edited by Mikail Iossel and Jeff Parker. An essay collection published not long after 9/11, although only a few of the essays actually touch on that event. Many of them include potshots at American political correctness (hard to embrace the concept if you come from the country where you could literally be sent to a gulag for “political incorrectness”), as well as lists of American books the authors read at a formative age.

I thank my lucky stars that I didn’t read this before Honeytrap, as the book might have been delayed indefinitely while I tried to work my way through the works of Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury, Ursula K. Le Guin, Isaac Asimov, as well as some other authors I’ve never even heard of. With truth the author of this essay notes “the average Soviet person probably knew [American science fiction] better than the average American.”

What I’m Reading Now

Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. Sadly suspicious that none of these characters are ever going to make it to the lighthouse.

What I Plan to Read Next

Does my lightning zoom through Jane Austen’s Bookshelf mean that I will at last read an eighteenth century novel? MAYBE. The library boasts Fanny Burney’s Evelina, Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Romance of the Forest, Charlotte Lennox’s The Female Quixote, and Maria Edgeworth’s Belinda. Any recommendations among those works?

Reading Wednesday

May. 28th, 2025 06:42 am
sabotabby: (books!)
[personal profile] sabotabby
Just finished: Bad Cree by Jessica Johns. I really enjoyed this one, with the caveat that it was hyped to me as the most disturbing thing, read it before giving it to a student, etc., and it was a very different (if very good) kind of book. Though possibly my calibration for disturbing is way off. I did find it a very strong story about family and community vs. extractive industries and the MMIWG epidemic, and one of the best use of dreams in fiction I've seen since we all decided that kind of thing was gauche.

What Feasts At Night by T. Kingfisher. I enjoyed this one too. After barely surviving the events of the first book, our lead and ka (?) companions return to their home (fictional) country, where the caretaker of the estate has suddenly died. The villagers won't go near the place and claim that it's haunted by a creature that sits on your chest and sucks out your breath. So, they have to fight it, all while dealing with PTSD from the war. Fun stuff.

Two things I particularly liked about this: 1) it actually was disturbing as shit, especially the scene with the horses. 2) this is kind of the reverse of what I complained about with Someone You Can Build a Nest In in terms of queernormative fantasy settings. The imaginary country is integrated into the Serbo-Bulgarian War, but it is clearly a country with different norms, myths, and traditions. The novella has a nonbinary lead, and this identity is important and plays a role in their backstory, but it also has a different meaning and definition that in would have in our world (it's important to note that this is queernormative and Alex doesn't appear to be discriminated against in their society, but there are still gendered expectations and roles). It contributes to the worldbuilding as well, so there are different pronouns for both God and priests, and that adds interest rather than erases difference. Anyway, it is pretty cool.

Currently reading: The Siege of Burning Grass by Premee Mohamed. This one was also really hyped up and I can see why. There's a longstanding war between two empires: Varkal (which is kind of industrial-age but uses genetically altered animals as its technology) and Med’ariz (which has floating cities and more technologically based weapons). The causes and parameters of this war are deliberately fuzzy to the POV characters, but Med'ariz seems to be winning. Alefrat, the leader of the pacifist resistance in Varkal, is blown up, kidnapped, and imprisoned by his government, and let out on the condition that he travel to the Med'ariz front line, infiltrate them, and create the same kind of grassroots uprising that he did in Varkal. He's accompanied by Qhudur, a brutal soldier/prison guard. 

This is very good so far; it pulls no punches either in its depiction of war or its depiction of disability (Alefrat's leg was blown off before the story begins, and there's a bizarro doctor who had started to regrow it with wasps, and the entire thing is very nasty). It's definitely problematizing pacifism and its role in defanging political movements, though I am not sure where the author/narrative is ultimately going to fall on this. It feels like a slog, and this is intentional; every inch of the characters' journey is painstakingly fought for, and you feel it.
 
real ones by Katherena Vermette. I really liked the other book I read by Vermette; this one is better. It's about two sisters, June and lyn, whose father is Michif and mother is white. Said mother, Renee, is an acclaimed artist winning all the arts grants by pretending to also be Métis. When her identity is exposed, the sisters are not only faced with digging up the trauma of their childhood (this is nowhere near the only shitty thing Renee has done) but having their own identities, careers, and community ties thrown into question.

Pretendians are somewhat of a national obsession here, and I don't weigh into it much because it's not at all my business, and it's a source of pain for Indigenous folks that I don't want to accidentally aggravate. Besides just being a really good story, this is an amazing look into the psychology of someone who fakes Indigenous ancestry and how it affects everyone around her. I haven't seen this tackled in fiction at all and Vermette does it spectacularly. It's also weirdly relatable in the relationship that the sisters have with their mother—growing up with a mostly-absent conman father, I get how they can't bring themselves to cut off Renee entirely even when she wrecks destruction in their lives. 

Also the look at the media and arts landscape of Canada is just spot on. Perfect. It's so good.
sovay: (Sovay: David Owen)
[personal profile] sovay
Actually, despite the amount of vacuuming and dusting it contained, I had a rather nice day. I walked into Cambridge to pick up my copies of Sian Northey and Ness Owen's Afonydd (2025) and Vin Packer's The Girl on the Best Seller List (1960) and a present for my niece, based on Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris' The Lost Words (2017). Thanks to a sale, I was able to present [personal profile] spatch with a DVD of Get Crazy (1983) and my mother gave me Poker Faces (1926), otherwise known as the recently restored silent feature starring Edward Everett Horton which has intrigued me for the last month. She thinks I should learn to read Welsh. I had an oat scone in between errands. [personal profile] selkie approved my introduction to Calbee's seaweed-and-salt potato chips. The mail brought the disaster-themed special volume of The Massachusetts Historical Review which contains the chapter on the 1755 Cape Ann earthquake from Donald Fleming's never-finished history of science edited by Dean Grodzins. I cleaned a lot. Mostly it's been weeks since I walked anywhere and was not dead flat afterward, wiped out from doing one thing in a day. The alternative was nice.

Daily Happiness

May. 27th, 2025 10:40 pm
torachan: tavros from homestuck dressed as pupa pan (pupa pan)
[personal profile] torachan
1. I had a lot of catching up to do today after the three day weekend and not a lot of time to do it as I had a store visit in the morning and then two meetings in the afternoon, but I did manage to get caught up.

2. Jasper is so handsome.

delphi: An illustrated crow kicks a little ball of snow with a contemplative expression. (Default)
[personal profile] delphi
Fandom 50 #17

Untitled Cobel/Reghabi by [tumblr.com profile] genderfeel
Fandom: Severance
Relationship: Harmony Cobel/Asal Reghabi
Medium: Art
Length: 1 piece
Rating: SFW
My Bookmark Tags: drama, ambiguous ending, former relationship, blades, fights & breakups, rivalry, sexual tension
Artist's Summary: everybody ready for the toxic mad scientist exes yuri reveal

Description:
Reghabi looms over Cobel, holding a scalpel to her throat. Cobel looks up at her from the ground, neither woman flinching from the other's intense gaze.

Look, I fell completely in love with Reghabi during season 2. I already enjoyed her from season 1, but her bizarre flavour of lack of chill combined with the scene of her eating frosting out of the can put her in perfect woman territory for me. I also ended up even more fascinated by Cobel throughout the season, with Sweet Vitriol in particular being an "Oh, hello" episode for me. Which is all to say, I am so here for putting these two in the same room and seeing what happens.

But if I wasn't already sold on the premise, this art would have gotten me there. It feels like a still from an action scene, with the movement and tension it conveys. It captures the characters' features in a distinct style, and their expressions are perfect, matching each other but with that extra hint of determination on Reghabi's side and coldness on Cobel's. There's the sense that what comes next could be sex, a stabbing, or both, and I love it.
nevanna: (Default)
[personal profile] nevanna
“Guilty pleasure” can be a loaded term, especially when it comes to media consumption. When compiling this list, I avoided titles that fell into the following categories.

A. The pleasure of the book is “guilty” because I am not its target audience (children or young adults).
B. The pleasure of the book is “guilty” because I am its target audience and we’re socially conditioned to think of fiction marketed toward women as frivolous.
C. The book was good but the author Did A Problematic Thing (or was Insufficiently Marginalized to tell the story they were telling). Those conversations aren’t without value, but I’m much more interested in discussing the actual text.

Instead, I decided to look at titles that I enjoy even though I disagree with something fundamental about the creative choices that went into them.

Some examples! )

Unsent Letters Exchange

May. 27th, 2025 10:29 pm
luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
[personal profile] luzula
I didn't really bother trying not to be obvious when I wrote this for [personal profile] sanguinity:

Excerpt from the Journal of Captain Keith Windham for August 14-16, 1745 (1011 words) by Luzula
Fandom: The Jacobite Trilogy | The Flight of the Heron Series - D. K. Broster
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Ewen Cameron/Keith Windham
Characters: Keith Windham, Ewen Cameron
Additional Tags: Diary/Journal, Missing Scene

It was fun to write a bit of Keith's journal from when he first met Ewen! It was equally obvious that [personal profile] sanguinity was the one who wrote me this lovely "Mr Rowl" fic:

Nary a Cause for Tears (9400 words) by sanguinity
Chapters: 4/4
Fandom: "Mr Rowl" - D. K. Broster
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Raoul des Sablières/Hervey Barrington, Raoul des Sablières/Juliana Forrest
Characters: Hervey Barrington, Raoul des Sablières, Lavinia Barrington, Hannah Jeremy, Juliana Forrest, John Jeremy (Mr Rowl)
Additional Tags: Epistolary, Enemies to Lovers, Bittersweet, Missing Scenes, Canon Compliant, Pining, (but not only pining!)
Summary: If he dies here, that will be his final judgement of me: that I take joy in his suffering.

Were it true, I would be a happier man this night.

It is a fic with many layers: an academic framing, a journal intended for public consumption, and the same character's secret journal. I really enjoyed how these layers interplayed with each other, and of course it's great to get Barrington's POV on the canon events (and more than the canon events, too!). There are some lovely missing scenes here.

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Glittery

May 2025

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