gentlyepigrams: (key)
[personal profile] gentlyepigrams
Books
A Cold Highland Wind, by Tasha Alexander. Seventeenth Lady Emily mystery; this time she and her man and the three kids are in Scotland with her BFF Jeremy at his estate. His gamekeeper is murdered and there are a host of local suspect. This mystery repeats Alexander's theme of "here's the thing that happened in the past that ties to the present", which continues to be sort of interesting with a side "enjoy my learnings for this book please." There's another one out and I've already put it into my library queue.
That Silent Night, by Tasha Alexander. Apparently there are a bunch of holiday novellas about Lady Emily! This is one of them and features Emily trying to find a Ghost of Christmas.

Movies & TV
Murderbot, Episodes 4-6. I get the people who say the 30-minute episodes are too short but they really have the feel of the old 70s Doctor Who cliffhangers, in a good way. Also I called how Ep. 6 was going to work out, even if not exactly how it ended.

Music
Garbage, Let All That We Imagine Be the Light. It's a Garbage record. I've listened to it a few times on repeat, which is more than I did with the last one so far. I like it but it's going to take a while to really gel for me.
Orbital, Radio Sessions 1993 - EP. Pretty sure I have heard all of these remixes on other albums' deluxe issues, but they're good mixes, Brant.

Things

Jun. 19th, 2025 01:01 pm
vass: Small turtle with green leaf in its mouth (Default)
[personal profile] vass
Books
Started Freya Marske's A Power Unbound.

Fandom
I'm mostly reading Nine Worlds or The Goblin Emperor fanfic right now.
Recs:
A Nuisance Though Thou Art, by [archiveofourown.org profile] wedgetail. (The Goblin Emperor, complete.) Setheris dies when Maia's eleven.
Wheel and turn or bleed and burn by [archiveofourown.org profile] Drel_Murn. (Nine Worlds, WIP) Pern fusion. The fire lizard character is a delight. Mind the rape/noncon warning: that's not just because of the dubcon nature of mating flights.
fake a smile, by [archiveofourown.org profile] ariex09, [archiveofourown.org profile] crownedrooster, [archiveofourown.org profile] fire_eyes_chica, and [archiveofourown.org profile] rattyjol (Nine Worlds. Series: five complete stories and two WIPs.) [archiveofourown.org profile] crownedrooster wrote an upsetting fic back in late 2023 in which Fitzroy, during ROFA, makes a bad bargain with a memory-stealing creature. Since then, various people (including [archiveofourown.org profile] crownedrooster) have written follow-ups, fix-its, make-it-worses, and complicate-it-furthers.

Music
Listened to the Doors' song 'The End'. Did no one in the recording studio try to help that poor man? During the bridge, I mean, when he stumbled into that giant hornet nest and they all started stinging him.

Crafts
Didn't actually do a craft, but I did go to the introductory safety talk at a library's maker space, so now I can go there and use the equipment.
Things I learned there:
- The Cricut's pressing plate (operating temperature 200'C) is not an elbow rest. (The librarian giving the talk reported that it used to be located in another part of the room, but they kept on leaning their elbow near or on it. It wasn't turned on at the time, but their supervisor saw the writing on the wall and made them relocate it somewhere harder to touch accidentally.)
- The word "Cricut" is pronounced "cricket", not "cry, cut" as I'd thought.

Games
Still slaying the spire. I've now gotten every character up to at least two ascension levels, three for Clad and the Defect.

Weather
So fucking cold. So of course my hot water boiler went on the blink this week. Fortunately it just needed power cycling. Unfortunately I didn't think of this for myself. I'll know next time.

Nature
I saw a kangaroo in my backyard on Monday.
What was it doing there? Hopping.
How did it get there? Through the driveway.
What kind of roo? Eastern grey.
How big was it? Standing upright, I think about as tall as me, but it was too far for me to be sure.
Male or female? I didn't ask. There was something dangling, but I didn't get close enough to see if that was genitals or a joey. Given the height, probably a boomer?
What did you do? Stared at it, took photos, did not approach.
How did you get it out? I didn't. I watched it to make sure it wasn't hurt or sick or stuck, then went to the library for the safety talk. It hopped out again before I got home.
Pics or it didn't happen? For privacy reasons, I am not posting pictures of the kangaroo in a public Dreamwidth post. But I did take photos.
The kangaroo's privacy? Yes. I don't want to antagonise it.

of a runaway American dream

Jun. 18th, 2025 10:56 pm
musesfool: Bruce! (the cosmic kid in full costume dress)
[personal profile] musesfool
[tumblr.com profile] angelgazing just informed me that there's a movie coming out in the fall where Jeremy Allen White plays Bruce Springsteen - here's the trailer - and idk but all I see and hear is Carmy from The Bear (the only thing I've seen him in) so it's not working for me. He has a very specific *gestures* everything that's not translating for me. I guess we'll see!

*

A musical puzzle?

Jun. 18th, 2025 03:01 pm
brithistorian: (Default)
[personal profile] brithistorian

When I was playing "Time in a Bottle" last night, I noticed an Easter egg in the chorus. The chorus is like this: (The numbers in parentheses are the frets to play the chord on a ukulele. The bolded numbers will be explained below.)

  • D (2-2-2-5)
  • DMaj7 (2-2-2-4)
  • D6 (2-2-2-2)
  • D (2-2-2-0) alternate fingering for D
  • G (0-2-3-2)
  • G6 (0-2-2-2)
  • Em7 (0-2-0-2)
  • A7 (0-1-0-0)

The notes played by the bolded numbers are: D, C#, B, A, G, F#, E, A. Those notes may look kind of familiar to some of you: Pachelbel's Canon in D goes D, C#, B, A, G, F#, G, A! The seventh note is different, but otherwise it's the same, even in the same key!

Things I Can Only See Up North

Jun. 18th, 2025 12:58 pm
jesse_the_k: Flannery Lake is a mirror reflecting reds violets and blues at sunset (Rosy Rhinelander sunset)
[personal profile] jesse_the_k

I’m up near Rhinelander staying on Flannery Lake. I’ll be reveling in 15:45 hours of daylight on the summer solstice. Today there’s zero wind, while the second-growth white, yellow, and red pine trees are pumping out their jizz with enthusiasm. The lime-yellow grains appear darker as they overlay almost every square inch of the water, with wild swirls and eddies that extend many feet off shore until eventually the black surface reflects many puffy cumulus clouds in a light blue sky.

Lovely to look at, but not so great to breathe. At least we're not bedeviled by wildfire smoke.

click for pic )

brithistorian: (Default)
[personal profile] brithistorian

Today I finally got around to watching the trailer for the new Fantastic Four movie. I am absolutely jaw-dropped and looking forward to seeing this movie, which I never really expected to be. It's as if someone at Marvel read my post from last year about why previous Fantastic Four movies hadn't really worked well and taken my ideas to heart. I don't think I can ever recall a studio making the movie I wanted them to make!

/me screams into a pillow

Jun. 18th, 2025 11:37 am
watersword: "Shakespeare invaded Poland, thus perpetuating World Ware II." -Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged. (Stock: Shakespeare invaded Poland.)
[personal profile] watersword

To recap: I spent winter break putting together a plan for a pollinator garden in the local park; I wrote & won a grant to fund said garden; I have been trying to get the parks department to tell me what they need from me for next steps since February (I contacted multiple! people! multiple! times!).

In the most Rhode Island thing ever, a coworker who knows the director of the parks department was able to get her to answer an email, in May. This prompted the landscape designer (who is the person I actually need to talk to) to also reply, mentioning he had previously heard from us, and saying he would need more (unspecified) information from us. I responded enthusiastically, asking what he needed from us and if a zoom call would be helpful, and ....silence.

This week, I attended a meeting of the local neighborhood association, and asked them for help getting the parks department to engage with me further; they said to try emailing them again, this time cc'ing the president of the neighborhood association, and lo and fucking behold, there is an answer from the designer in my inbox, with what is apparently their standard form for people who want to add plantings to public parks. They could have sent me this literally months ago!!!

I will of course fill it out this weekend and send it back ASAP, because I have all the information they're asking for already, but first I gotta scream into the void for a minute.

(I know they're overworked and underpaid, I SWEAR I am being extremely polite in all my emails, they could have sent me this form in February omg.)

oursin: Photograph of small impressionistic metal figurine seated reading a book (Reader)
[personal profile] oursin

What I read

Finished Wide is the Gate, and while things are getting grimmer and grimmer as regards The World Situation, I am still very much there for Our Protag Lanny being a mild-mannered art dealer with a secret identity as anti-fascist activist, who gets on with everybody and is quite the antithesis of the Two-Fisted Hollywood Hero. (I was thinking who would I cast in the role and while there's a touch of the Jimmy Stewarts, the social aplomb and little moustache - William Powell?)

Lates Literary Review.

Mary Gordon, The Chase of the Wild Goose: The Story of Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Sarah Ponsonby, Known as the Ladies of Llangollen (1936), which is sort-of a classic version of their story recently republished. But o dear, it does one of my pet hates, which is blurring 'imaginative recreation' with 'biographical research' and skipping between the two modes, and then in the final chapter she encounters the ghosts of of the Ladies, I can't even, really. Plus, Gordon, who was b. 1861, obtained medical education, fought for suffrage, etc, nevertheless disses on Victorian women as 'various kinds of imbecile', unlike those robust and politically-engaged ladies of the Georgian era. WOT. TUT. Also honking class issues about how the Ladies were Ladies and always behaved accordingly.

Began Robert Rodi, What They Did to Princess Paragon (1994), which was just not doing it for me, I can be doing with viewpoint characters being Not Nice, but I was beginning to find both of them (the comic-book writer and the fanboy) tedious.

Also not doing it for me, Barbara Vine, The Child's Child (2012): sorry, the inset novel did not read to me like a real novel of the period at which it was supposed to have been writ as opposed to A Historical Novel of Those Oppressive Times of the early C20th. Also, in frame narrative, I know PhD student who is writing thesis on unwed mothers in literature is doing EngLit but I do think someone might have mentioned (given period at which she is supposed to be doing this) the historiography on The Foundling Hospital.

I then turned to Shirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962), which it is a very long time since I read.

Then I was reduced to Agatha Christie, By the Pricking of My Thumbs (1968), and Murder in the Mews (1937).

On the go

I happened to spot my copy of Margery Sharp, Cluny Brown (1944), which I know I was looking for a while ago, and am reading that though it looks as though I re-read it more recently than I thought.

Have also begun on Books For Review.

Up Next

Really dunno.

Strategies.

Jun. 17th, 2025 10:18 pm
hannah: (Pruning shears - fooish_icons)
[personal profile] hannah
Of late, I've tried to derive some entertainment value of sitting and waiting for people to stop talking so I don't interrupt them because that's about the only way to get through it with any composure. There's people I've met who can go for long minutes without giving me any indications they want me to talk. I'm tempted to see if raising my hand does anything, or getting up and moving.

I know I could theoretically interrupt them, but every person who has this trait would have to be yelled at for them to hear me talking. Though now I'm also tempted to try to just start talking in a normal volume, ignoring everything they're saying, just to see that reaction.
petra: Barbara Gordon smiling knowingly (Default)
[personal profile] petra
[Podfic] Unrestrained passion (14 words) by GodOfLaundryBaskets, sisi_rambles, LittleRedRobinHood, Aether
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars - All Media Types
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi/Anakin Skywalker, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker | Darth Vader
Characters: Anakin Skywalker | Darth Vader, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padmé Amidala
Additional Tags: Limericks, Poetry, Podfic, Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes, Multivoice and Collaborative Podfic
Summary:

Podfic (00:02:28)

Author's Summary from Petra:
A limerick cycle for Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Padmé.



*

[Podfic] Rewind, rewind, rewind (14 words) by GodOfLaundryBaskets, sisi_rambles, LittleRedRobinHood, Aether
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: 212th Attack Battalion Members (Star Wars: The Clone Wars) & Obi-Wan Kenobi
Characters: 212th Attack Battalion Members (Star Wars: The Clone Wars), Obi-Wan Kenobi
Additional Tags: Drabble, Democracy, Podfic, Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes, Multivoice and Collaborative Podfic
Summary:

Podfic (00:01:44)

Author's Summary from Petra:
Waxer asks a cogent question on a long, cold night.



*

[Podfic] Natural philosophy (17 words) by sisi_rambles, AppleSapling
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars - All Media Types
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker
Characters: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker
Additional Tags: Aubrey-Maturin Fusion, SOLAR SHIPS, Triple Drabble, Not quite high Patrick O'Brian pastiche, But leaning that way, Podfic, Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes, Multivoice and Collaborative Podfic
Summary:

Podfic (00:02:57)

Author's Summary from Petra:
Obi-Wan came into Anakin's cabin just in time to see the monkey-lizard he'd carefully collected slump to one side and fall off of the table.



*

[Podfic] Rewind, rewind, rewind (14 words) by GodOfLaundryBaskets, sisi_rambles, LittleRedRobinHood, Aether
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: 212th Attack Battalion Members (Star Wars: The Clone Wars) & Obi-Wan Kenobi
Characters: 212th Attack Battalion Members (Star Wars: The Clone Wars), Obi-Wan Kenobi
Additional Tags: Drabble, Democracy, Podfic, Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes, Multivoice and Collaborative Podfic
Summary:

Podfic (00:01:44)

Author's Summary from Petra:
Waxer asks a cogent question on a long, cold night.



*

[Podfic] The Sun would not have risen (17 words) by sisi_rambles, AppleSapling
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars - All Media Types
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Luke Skywalker
Characters: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker
Additional Tags: morris dancing, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Podfic, Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes, Multivoice and Collaborative Podfic
Summary:

Podfic (00:01:07)

Author's Summary from Petra:
Luke follows in his father's footstep-hops.



*

[Podfic] Mindtrick (13 words) by sisi_rambles
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi/Elan Sleazebaggano
Characters: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Elan Sleazebaggano
Additional Tags: Podfic, Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes
Summary:

Obi-Wan runs into a hookup.

it's so crazy lately

Jun. 17th, 2025 06:33 pm
kaydeefalls: raven smiles brilliantly (raven hearts you)
[personal profile] kaydeefalls
I am 40 today. Huzzah. I have spent the day at work, as per, baking myself a cake, and feeling grumpy because my wife's flight home Sunday was canceled due to tornadoes in the vicinity (you cannot make this shit up), which means she's not getting back until very late tonight instead. So to distract myself, here, have a fic.

Somehow I churned out 18k words in a week for this. It was supposed to be a quick and silly meet cute. IDEK. Happy birthday to me.


ready to dive (18468 words) by kaydeefalls
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Heartstopper (TV), Heartstopper (Webcomic)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Nicholas "Nick" Nelson/Charles "Charlie" Spring, Darcy Olsson & Charles "Charlie" Spring
Characters: Charles "Charlie" Spring (Heartstopper), Nicholas "Nick" Nelson, Darcy Olsson, Elle Argent, Tao Xu (Heartstopper)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Pride, Strangers to Lovers, Romantic Comedy, mass transit mishaps, strangers to friends to lovers speedrun, queer found family is so important, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Sexual Content, this is not a slow burn for once, they've got the hob on medium high and are jumping right into it, Meet-Cute, the mildest of angst before a happy ending, Confident Charles "Charlie" Spring (Heartstopper), Smitten Nicholas "Nick" Nelson
Summary:

In which Darcy is a drunken chaos gremlin, Charlie has to clean up their mess, and missing the last train of the night might just be the best thing that Nick has ever done. (A Pride-themed uni meet cute AU, because why the hell not.)

music: A Wistful Satellite Song

Jun. 17th, 2025 10:33 am
jesse_the_k: Photo of Pluto's heart region with text "I" above and "science" below. (I love science)
[personal profile] jesse_the_k

I’ve been a Karine Polwart fan for decades, which led me to her recent collaboration with Julie Fowlis and Mary Chapin Carpenter. "Looking for the Thread" mixes Scots Gaelic and US country and a little bit of rock’n’roll.

I was moved by this farewell from the POV of a dying satellite—can you tell me if this matches an actual satellite that circled our planet?

Stream here on YouTube )

Or on SoundCloud or on Spotify.

Lyrics in the cut )

Book Review: All of us Murderers

Jun. 17th, 2025 04:34 pm
pandarus: (Default)
[personal profile] pandarus
(Thanks to NetGalley for access to an advance copy of All Of Us Murderers in exchange for an honest review)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/All-Us-Murderers-Kj-Charles/dp/1464227527

While the adage that you should never judge a book by its cover is generally good advice, in the case of “All Of Us Murderers” the cover art is an excellent guide to the contents of the book: a gloriously over the top piece of escapism created as a love letter to the genre.

Cover art

This is an unrepentantly gothic confection, and it was, as anticipated, a wittily tropetastic delight rife with nefarious villains, misty moors, blood-drenched ruins, cursed fortunes, wide-eyed nubile heiresses and mysterious ghostly figures, ALL of which our hero (a precious ADHD cinnamon roll, and - provided one doesn’t find The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name to be a source of wickedness - very much the white sheep of his unpleasant family) is desperately trying to avoid, bless him.

Zebedee Wyckham is the impoverished grandson of a successful gothic novelist, and having found himself once again between jobs he has unwisely accepted an invitation to pay a visit to a wealthy uncle whom he hasn’t seen in decades - only to find himself trapped in the most ghastly houseparty since…well, since the LAST hilariously ghastly (and murderous) house party to grace the pages of a KJ Charles novel.

Finding that the lover whom he inadvertently ruined a year ago is now working as his uncle’s secretary comes as a mortifying shock, but this is the least of the unwelcome surprises that his uncle’s faux-gothic home has in store.

Zeb may be the innocent Cinderella figure amongst the variously unpleasant scions of the Wyckham family, but he’s no fool: having grown up on the works of Mrs Radcliffe, Horace Walpole and his own respected ancestor, Zeb can spot a gothic novel cliche at fifty paces and he has absolutely no intention of ending up sacrificed on a pagan altar, walled up in a cellar, drowned in a well or otherwise disposed of: think “Scream”, but make it gay and a period piece.

He is, in short, the polar opposite of Austen’s Catherine Morland: far from imagining spectral figures and dark secrets where none exist, Zeb is a pragmatic soul with a kind (if battered) heart who wasn’t born yesterday & has no interest in rushing headlong into danger if it can possibly be avoided.

Can Zeb escape the unwelcome attentions of the various spectral figures, blackmailers, marriageable heiresses and spider-filled rooms that await him at Lackaday House, and persuade his bitter ex to forgive him for past offences?

(Of course he can! This isn’t LitFic! You know that the starcrossed lovers will escape the villains’ clutches in the nick of time, foil their iniquitous plans, and finally achieve their happily ever after - but it’s still *thoroughly* enjoyable watching KJ Charles get them there.)
oursin: Photograph of James Miranda Barry, c. 1850 (James Miranda Barry)
[personal profile] oursin

Honestly, people. How is this even A Thing?

NHS staff unsettled by patients filming care and posting videos on social media.

When partner first mentioned this to me I was 'Do they even let them into operating theatre and what about scrubbing up etc?', because I assumed it wasn't actually the patient doing this, and in fact reading further it does seem to be accompanying persons.

Radiographers, who take X-rays and scans, fear the trend could compromise the privacy of other patients being treated nearby and lead to staff having their work discussed online.
The Society of Radiographers (SoR) has gone public with its unease after a spate of incidents in which patients, or someone with them in the hospital, began filming their care.
On one occasion a radiology department assistant from the south coast was inserting a cannula into a patient who had cancer when their 19-year-old daughter began filming.
“She wanted to record the cannulation because she thought it would be entertaining on social media.* But she didn’t ask permission,” the staff member said.
“I spent the weekend afterwards worrying: did I do my job properly? I know I did, but no one’s perfect all the time and this was recorded. I don’t think I slept for the whole weekend.”
They were also concerned that a patient in the next bay was giving consent for a colonoscopy – an invasive diagnostic test – at the same time as the daughter was filming her mother close by. “That could all have been recorded on the film, including names and dates of birth,” they said.
Ashley d’Aquino, a therapeutic radiographer in London, said a colleague had agreed to take photographs for a patient, “but when the patient handed over her phone the member of staff saw that the patient had also been covertly recording her, to publish on her cancer blog.

*Emphasis mine.

First we go back to miasmatic theory, then we go back to operations as spectator sport?

How very different, I would argue, are Barbara Hepworth's 'Hospital Drawings':

Capener began purchasing some of Hepworth’s art, which in turn helped with the costs of her daughter’s surgery. He later asked the artist if she might be interested in observing some of the procedures taking place in the operating theatre. Hepworth, initially horrified by this thought, decided to go. The materials that she needed to make her sculptures were scarce during postwar Britain, meaning she also had more time on her hands to explore other projects.
Hepworth soon became fascinated with the surgical process. She was particularly moved by the methodical rhythm of the surgeon’s hands and the concentration in their eyes. The eyes and hands are rendered with a delicacy and softness, with attentively modulated grey-white tones. They emerge from the cruder, more abstract marks in blue, green and other similar hues. Her drawing techniques somehow brings the scene to life; the many flowing lines are suggestive of the creases forming in the doctors’ blue gowns, created by their constant movement around the horizontal, inert patient. After many visits, Hepworth had created a body of work which revealed her wonderful abilities as a draughtsperson, as well as a sculptor.

Darrington Press

Jun. 16th, 2025 11:12 pm
settiai: (Critical Role -- settiai)
[personal profile] settiai
I've gotta admit, I didn't see that coming. Darrington Press, which is the publishing company that Critical Role started a few years ago, just announced that Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford have joined the team.

For those unfamiliar, they're both well-known names in D&D who left Wizards of the Coast a few months ago. So it's a pretty big deal that's where they ended up after jumping ship.

oh noes

Jun. 16th, 2025 10:11 pm
jadelennox: its the story of an ice cube but every time he feels happy it make him melt a little bit more (story of an ice cube)
[personal profile] jadelennox

my friend just said "ACAB includes Odo" and she's right.

Dear Just Married Author

Jun. 16th, 2025 01:46 pm
beatrice_otter: Me in red--face not shown (Default)
[personal profile] beatrice_otter
I use the same name everywhere so I am [personal profile] beatrice_otter on AO3. Treats are awesome.

I would rather get a story you were happy with than "well, she said she liked x, so I guess I have to do x even though I don't like x and/or am not inspired that way." This letter is long with lots of suggestions and preferences if you find it helpful, but feel free to ignore it if it is not helpful. I'm fairly easy to please; I've been doing ficathons for over a decade and am usually very happy with my gifts.

The most important thing for me in a fic is that the characters are well-written and recognizably themselves. Even when I don't like a character, I don't go in for character-bashing. If nothing else, if the rest of this letter is too much or my kinks don't fit yours, just concentrate on writing a story with everyone in character and good spelling and grammar and I will almost certainly love what you come up with.

I have an embarrassment squick, which makes humor kind of hit-or-miss sometimes. The kind of humor where someone does something embarrassing and the audience is laughing at them makes me uncomfortable. On the other hand, the kind of humor where the audience is laughing with the characters I really enjoy.


General Likes and Dislikes
Here are some other things to keep in mind:
  • I like stuff that takes side characters and puts them center-stage, especially when the characters and/or actors are marginalized. I enjoy seeing them come to life.
  • I don't like it when marginalized characters get relegated to the sidekick/supporting/helper role so that it can be All About The White Dude.
  • I like it when female characters are more than just the Strong Female Character(tm) or The Nurturer.
  • I like fluff
  • I like angst with a happy ending
  • I like stories that make me think about things in a new way.
  • I like to know that culture matters to people, and to see how different cultures interact and where the clashes are.
  • I like unreliable narrators.
  • I like acknowledgment that different people can have different points of view without either of them being wrong.
  • I like stories that engage with problematic aspects of the source, and which deal with privilege in one way or another instead of sweeping it under the rug.
  • Worldbuilding is my jam, I am pretty much always up for explorations of why the world is the way it is. I love hearing about the economics, the politics, the religion, the clothing, the history, the folklore, all of that kind of stuff. And I want to know why it matters--how is all this cultural background stuff affecting the characters, the plot, everything. You don't have to do deep worldbuilding, but I'll enjoy it if you do.
  • I don't like it when plots hinge on characters being selectively stupid, or selectively unable to communicate. Like, if they are stupid or a himbo or whatever in general, or have problems communicating in general, that's fine! Or if they canonically have a blind spot in that area, again, it's fine. But if it's just "the only way I can think of for this plot to work is if the character spontaneously and temporarily loses half their intelligence and competence," then I'm going to spend the rest of the fic wondering why the character didn't just ____?
  • I like AUs, but not complete setting AUs (i.e. no highschool or college or coffee shop AUs, and especially not mundane AUs--nothing where you keep characters but drop most of the worldbuilding). I like fork-in-the-road type AUs, where one thing is different and the changes all result from that one thing, and you explore what might have been if such-and-such happened.
  • I like the concept of sedoretu marriages.
  • I like historical AUs, but only when the author actually knows the history period in question and does thoughtful worldbuilding to meld actual culture of the time with the canon.
  • Crackfic is really hit and miss for me, sometimes I love it and sometimes I can't stand it. Basically, if it's the characters we know and love in a ludicrous situation, that's great. If they're OOC or parodied in order to make something funny ... it's not funny to me.
I like plotty, gen stories, and plotty stories in general. I don't care for explicit sex, particularly when it's just thrown in for teh porn. I'm asexual; a lot of the time I don't even bother to read the sex scenes. Romance is awesome (as long as both are in character and the romantic plot doesn't hinge on one or both of them being an idiot). I love it when friendship is held up as important and not secondary to romantic relationships and blood ties.

Please no incest or darkfic. I define "darkfic" as stuff where there's a lot of suffering and no hope even at the end and all the characters are terrible. Angst with a happy ending is fine, I enjoy it, but there's gotta be a payoff. Even an ambiguous ending is fine! But there has to be some note of grace or redemption or hope somewhere, it can't just be "people are awful and the world sucks, the end." I define incest as siblings and/or parents, cousins don't count.

I love outsider perspectives and academic takes on things. In-universe meta (newspaper articles, academic monographs--especially with the sort of snarky feuding common in actual real-world academia, social media feeds in current day or future worlds) is awesome.

Also, I'm picky about European historical clothing details. You don't have to talk about it at all! In fact, if you don't know much about historical clothing, I would prefer if you didn't mention it at all. My pet peeve is corsets: no, they weren't a restrictive tool of the patriarchy, no, they didn't interfere with most women's daily lives, no, most women weren't wearing them so tight they couldn't breathe.

I like religion but I'm picky about it. Basically, Christianity is deeply weird compared to most other religions, and a lot of people whose only experience with religion is living in a culturally-Christian nation assume that what they know about Christianity is some sort of universal principle of What Religion Is Like, and that's just not the case. For example, in Christianity what you believe is more important than what you do. This is not to say we Christians don't teach and practice Christian ethics or have rituals we are very attached to, but rather that if you don't believe in Jesus Christ, it doesn't matter what rituals you participate in or what ethical things you do, you are not a Christian (although you may be a "cultural Christian"). Every Christian group has at least a minimal core theology that members must affirm, but participation in ritual is far less rigidly a requirement. Most other religions rank what you do (both ethically and ritually) as more important than what you believe, and it is often quite possible to be a member in good standing if you participate in the practices and rituals even if you believe none of the teachings. Anyway, point is, if you are doing worldbuilding for a fantasy or SF or otherwise non-Christian religion ... unless it is explicitly a Christian-analogue, it should be different from Christianity. Question your assumptions and see where that leads you, and I will be fascinated and thrilled.


Marriage Tropes and the Just Married Exchange
There are so many tropes in the tag set, and so many of them are hyper-specific, and I really hate what that does to matching and also to requesting tropes. For example, there's no way to say "yeah, I love me some time travel, anything with time travel will be awesome." Unless you want to completely throw open the gates and request any (not just "any time travel" but "any trope in the tag set"), in which case you can't DNW things you don't want. It's really limiting to both requestor and author! So if you're writing for me, I hereby declare the tropes as more suggestions than as Things You Absolutely Must Include. If you feel inspired by a trope tag I did not request, you're fine as long as I did not DNW it. So, for example, if you want to write Wimsey fic, and you want to write Peter and Harriet getting divorced, that's fine, because I have not DNWed it. But you couldn't write a fic where they're in Starfleet and Harriet is a Betazoid, because I have DNWed setting change AUs.


Peter Wimsey
I love all these characters and desperately crave more Wimseyverse. If you want to do a casefic of some sort, that would be delightful; a casefic centering on Parker or Bunter as the main detective with Peter in a supporting role would be lovely. But I would also be absolutely thrilled with domestic fluff or relationship issues or just the characters sitting down to tea and chatting. (Especially if you can capture Peter's piffling style or the layering of literary references in his and Harriet's speech.)

Harriet/Peter: I love their canon arc, of him falling so deeply in love immediately but her being so deeply hurt by what she's going through--and then by the baggage of being grateful to him and all the baggage of being a professional woman in that era and having to work through that as she falls in love back before she can say yes to him. I would adore anything canon-compliant set anywhere along that trajectory, or things set after they're married--during the war, maybe. However, I would also love AUs! What if they met earlier in some different way? Maybe they were both at one of Marjorie's parties. Maybe he happened to visit Oxford while recovering from the War and met Harriet there. (She was born around 1900, so she would probably have been starting 1918-1919.)

Bunter/Peter/Harriet: There are so many interesting angles you could take this! However, please DON'T go for "Peter/Bunter are established, but Peter offers to dump Bunter for Harriet" or "Peter/Bunter are established, and nothing changes in Peter's courtship of Harriet." Peter and Bunter's relationship is so fraught in canon--they play-act at the normal master-servant relationships, but Bunter's care for Peter goes far beyond that, and Peter jokes about Bunter being his wife in a way that I read as a bit "don't look too closely because in some ways it's true, but we can only acknowledge it through mockery." If you add sex to that, you get something that is even closer to marriage than their canon relationship. Peter can drop his mistresses immediately because the relationship is not based on anything deeper than sex and entertaining companionship. Bunter is in a different category altogether. I would love to see how Peter falling in love with Harriet changes things, if he and Bunter were together already. Regardless of Peter having love-at-first-sight with Harriet, I don't think he'd propose in this case without first at least talking with Bunter, which means no jail proposal. Maybe Peter (or Bunter!) sounds out Eiluned and Sylvia to figure out if it's safe to tell Harriet everything? Maybe there's a lot of angst on Bunter's part about being replaced--or maybe this time Harriet doesn't want to marry him because she doesn't think it's fair that she gets the public acknowledgement as Peter's spouse when really, it should be Bunter? Or maybe it's Peter who is angsting over the whole thing and Harriet and Bunter being very pragmatic about figuring out a workable solution. I'd love either a V with Peter in the center or a triad where all three are together with all three. Or maybe Peter and Bunter aren't together before Peter and Harriet marry (deeply in love but can't acknowledge it because of both issues with homosexuality and class), and it's Harriet--who has lived among the bohemian set--who gets the ball rolling. Or, as with Peter/Harriet, you could do an AU where they all met earlier ... and then the issue of his two years "dead" on that case become even more interesting.

Peter/Harriet/Mary/Parker: this is a sedoretu quartet for me, so Peter and Mary share a moiety and are NOT fucking. The pairings would be Peter/Harriet, Peter/Charles, Charles/Mary, Mary/Harriet. Please don't infantilize Mary, as Sayers and the fandom often do; she's only 5 years younger than Peter and was 28 in Clouds of Witness, 35 when she and Charles get engaged (during Strong Poison, in which Harriet is about 30). I think Mary should keep her revolutionary politics, even after marrying the staid middle-class policeman that is Charles Parker. I think this would make the dynamics of Strong Poison--and the Peter/Harriet courtship over the next several years--fascinating. It would add so many layers. Charles facing up to the possibility of sharing a household/sedoretu with a woman he investigated for murder! Harriet getting to know Mary, and not everything being about her issues with Peter!

Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic



DS9
I love alien culture worldbuilding, boldly going, exploring, wacky science hijinks, time travel, AU shenanigans. I love the hope that we can become better than we are. I love cross-cultural romance (especially when it deals realistically with having to figure out compromises--love is not all you need, you also need a lot of hard work and communication).

As for plot ... it's Star Trek. If you want to play it serious, go for it. If you want to lean into wacky tropes, that's great too. As long as everyone is in character, feel free to go as cracktastic as you want. One of my favorite things about DS9, it dealt with consequences. If you want to take a canon event that you think didn't get enough exploration and run with it, that would be awesome.

Do not feel bound by the trope tags. You can write anything as long as you respect my DNWs. (See note in the General section of the letter.)

I'd love something that dove into Bajoran religion, and the more ALIEN it is the better. We've MET the prophet and they have such a fundamentally different perspective on EVERYTHING than us linear creatures, I don't want it to feel like another screed on What Is Wrong With Christianity In America. You could lean into the Prophets' timey-wimey non-linearity and what that means for a religion that worships them. Most Earth religions are heavily time-based, with regular repeating festivals that serve a lot of purposes both social and religious--how would that work (or not work) when worshiping beings who see everything happening at once? Or explore the Orbs! What other orbs are there besides Time and Prophecy, and what do they DO? You don't have to have any ritual or belief or ANYTHING to use them, if they have line-of-sight to you they can DO THINGS. Give you visions! Send you time traveling! Whatever it is the others do! No Earth religion has any artifact that is anything like that, and besides wondering what the other orbs even are/do, I'm curious as to how they shaped Bajoran religion, and how it was that the Bajorans ended up worshiping the ones who SENT the orbs instead of the orbs themselves. Especially given that the Prophets mostly ... don't seem to want to be gods or care about being worshiped or what's going on on Bajor or anything. So it's not like they were sending messages with the Orbs about who sent them and why, which leaves a lot of scope for interpretation on the part of the Bajorans who found them.

I love Dax's relationship with Sisko, that lasted three hosts. What about when Sisko and Jadzia were still getting to know each other? They went from one power dynamic (Ambassador with lots of political power mentors callow youth) to a very different one (Sisko is all grown up, and Dax's superior officer, and with more life experience than Dax's current host). Negotiating that change must have been interesting, particularly if you throw in marriage to one of the hosts.

I thought that Kira and the O'Briens had a lot of chemistry, but also they have such radically different backgrounds and expectations. Culture, religion, childhood trauma--all radically different. I'd like to see how they could make it work.


I love to hate Dukat. You can use him as a villain, but don't ever forget that he's a manipulative weasel who most often actively chooses to do the worst thing possible. Even if he's doing something good in the moment, the moment is temporary.

Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic



SWOT
My favorite parts of Star Wars includes the PT, the OT, the Zahn trilogy (especially Mara Jade) and the X-Wing books, bits and pieces from the TV shows, Rey&Finn&Poe as the only contributions from the ST, and an ending where something new and better results after all the pain and trauma. (Or at least something different.) It's not that everything has to be perfect, but I want there to be at least some growth and change. If you are inspired by other corners of the Star Wars universe, feel free to bring them in, but those are my happy places, and I am perfectly fine with completely ignoring the ST or rewriting it to make it either less stupid or less depressing (or both).

I love Lando, and I think he was absolutely right to put the safety of his entire city and everyone living in it ahead of the well-being of a couple of old friends. He is smart, pragmatic, and responsible in the best possible way. Do Leia and Lando work together on political negotiations/shenanigans while Han plays house-husband and swoops in with the Falcon when they need backup? Do Han and Lando go off and make shady business deals and come home to Leia with intelligence she can use politically? Does Lando start up a new operation--maybe mining, maybe something else--or take over an existing one after the war is over, and become a respectable businessman? I was one of the contributors to the "What if Han became Emperor by accident" thread on tumblr a while back, and my contribution was "ooh, Lando would be his Grand Vizier!" and if you want to go that direction that would also be awesome. Also, Weird Jedi Shit is always fun. I didn't include many time travel/dimension travel/soul bond/SF tropes, feel free to use one of them instead of the tropes I picked.

Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic, Kylo Ren



SW Legends
The original Zahn trilogy and the X-Wing books are my favorite parts of the old Legends universe, but I like everything EXCEPT the Courtship of Princess Leia and the New Jedi Order stuff. (Teneniel Djo is awesome! Han kidnapping Leia is really really REALLY not. And I hated pretty much everything about the Vong.) I really like it when Luke is building a new Jedi community and rebuilding old traditions. You can bring in details from the PT and newer canon, if they don't contradict major parts of the Zahn trilogy.

Mara has such a complex past. I think she has trauma from her time with Palpatine that she can't admit even to herself--he was so good at grooming young people, so very manipulative, and even when you know your abuser did evil things to you, it's still hard to internalize. I think she has a unique perspective on the Force, and the Jedi, and galactic politics, that doesn't fit easily or neatly with the others but nevertheless is important to include if they don't want to re-make the mistakes of the past. It's about how do we remember the past while working to create a new future? How do we avoid making old mistakes? How do we heal? How do we build something better?

I love Lando, and I think he was absolutely right to put the safety of his entire city and everyone living in it ahead of the well-being of a couple of old friends. He is smart, pragmatic, and responsible in the best possible way. Do Leia and Lando work together on political negotiations/shenanigans while Han plays house-husband and swoops in with the Falcon when they need backup? Do Han and Lando go off and make shady business deals and come home to Leia with intelligence she can use politically? Does Lando serve as the practical "let's get support and resources for this new Jedi Order you're building" while Luke swans around being compassionate and heroic and saving the day? (But make sure that Lando's contributions are valued and not taken for granted.) I was one of the contributors to the "What if Han became Emperor by accident" thread on tumblr a while back, and my contribution was "ooh, Lando would be his Grand Vizier!" and if you want to go that direction that would also be awesome. Also, Weird Jedi Shit is always fun.

I think Lando and Mara would do very well together; both okay with shady stuff, but both with deep principles they will not compromise. My primary ship is Luke/Mara but I was livid when they retconned Lando/Mara out with "oh, no, they were never really together, it was just an undercover thing!" Even as a very sheltered middle class white teen, I could tell that was racist bullshit, and also smacked of that patriarchal extreme-monagamist trope where "if you love each other, your previous relationships can't have meant anything!" which always hits harder for women than men. No. People can decide a relationship isn't working and end it and start new ones without devaluing and denying the previous relationship. I would love Lando/Mara. I would love Luke/Mara where either she was never with Lando at all even for undercover purposes, or where Lando/Mara used to be together and broke up amicably. I would love Luke/Lando/Mara. I would be livid at "but Lando/Mara was never a real relationship!"

Plot bunnies: Standard Star Wars shenanigans where the fate of the galaxy is at stake and Our Heroes save the day. Is there critical knowledge in a hidden holocron they have to find? Is one of the other Hands (or an Inquisitor, or some other evil Force user) making trouble for Karrde and/or the New Jedi Order and/or the New Republic? Is the Empire threatening Lando's newest business venture (again)? Is there some situation where Lando's skills as a Respectable Businessman And Administrator are crucial to saving the day?

Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic, twincest, the "Lando and Mara were never really together, it was all a con/undercover thing!" retcon, Kylo Ren



BSG
I tend to prefer stories that go AU sometime in season 4, and where they DON'T choose to give up technology on the new Earth. However, there's also interesting things to be done with canon as is. I like Kara fine, but as the show progressed I got annoyed with the narrative focus on her and her Sooper Special Sekrit Destiny at the expense of other characters AND everything about her that wasn't related to that Special Destiny.

Lee/Dee/Kara/Sam is the obvious solution to the whole Lee/Kara drama, and yet it would cause almost as many problems as it would solve. I think Sam and Lee would get along ok, but Dee and Kara are like oil and water, and a poly relationship requires more communication, not less, and Kara sucks at communication. And they're all traumatized, but Kara especially acts out her trauma in really unhelpful ways. So! What would it do to their time on New Caprica? Were they split up as they were in canon? Were Kara and Sam on Pegasus, or Lee and Dee on New Caprica? What happens when Sam finds out he's a Cylon? What about Kara's mystical visions? (I always headcanoned that Kara's musician father that she had visions of was actually that one Cylon that the Ones got rid of completely, which would make her a hybrid like Hera.) Does having more people to help dealing with plot and emotional crises help, or does it just make things more difficult? If Dee doesn't die, does Felix still try for a coup?

If those ideas don't inspire you, here are some ideas I've had floating in the back of my head for two decades, mix and match as you like or feel free to ignore and do your own thing.

Plot bunnies: So, the show occasionally made nods to the supply problems, and I would be interested in something either dealing with the shortages or figuring out creative substitutions. I would be interested in stuff really exploring what it's like to be a Cylon and realizing the depth of how wrong they had been and what evil they had committed. I'd be interested in political wrangling and stuff dealing with religion (although please keep Baltar and Zarek to a minimum, and if you're going for the religion angle please don't go for "religion is bad and all believers are fundamentalists" angle). I'd be interested in day-in-the-life relationship stuff.

What if Kara's father was Daniel, the Cylon model the Ones got rid of when they got rid of the Five? What if the reason Cylons can't have babies is because the Ones douse the water supply with contraceptives? (They hate having biological bodies, betcha they hate the whole idea of children and reproducing that way.) What if Caprica Six hadn't miscarried? What if the jump at the end of the series, instead of going to a prehistoric Earth, took the fleet (and the Rebel Cylons) to the Twelve Colonies a couple of months before the Cylon attack? What if the kid Leoben dug up and claimed was his and Kara's actually WAS his and Kara's?

Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic, Dee committing suicide



Enterprise
What can I say, I just love Vulcans. Trip and T'Pol were hands down my favorite thing about the show. Also, I love the idea of that Enterprise that got thrown back in time and turned into a generation ship, and I would love to see more of them and what happened when they first got thrown back in time, and also what might have happened if Lorian's Enterprise had survived.

This is the couple that had not one but TWO kids neither knew about show up, Lorian and Elizabeth. What if either had lived? What if there was some OTHER shenanigans and they had a THIRD kid pop up, either through a normal pregnancy or some other SFnal shenanigans?

A note on worldbuilding: so much of the things we're told about Vulcans in Enterprise makes NO SENSE when compared with ... anything in any other Star Trek show ever. For example, how do you outlaw melds and telepathic contact when YOU NEED TELEPATHIC BONDS TO MATE EVERY SEVEN YEARS?!?!?!?!? You can either ignore the contradictions or lean into them and find explanations for them.

As for plot ... it's Star Trek. If you want to play it serious, go for it. If you want to lean into the wacky tropes Star Trek was known for, that's great too. As long as everyone is in character, feel free to go as cracktastic as you want with the time travel and travel to alternate universes and weird missions.

I love alien culture worldbuilding. I love boldly going and exploring and wacky science hijinks and time travel and alternate universe shenanigans. I love the hopeful attitude that we can become better than we are (but it might take a lot of work). I love cross-cultural romance (especially when it deals realistically with having to figure out what compromises each is going to make on what they expect out of a relationship--love is not all you need, you also need a lot of hard work and communication).

Prompts: what was life like when Enterprise was stuck back in time just waiting for things to come around so they could attack the Xindi weapon, knowing that Lorian was going to be the only one of them still alive when it happened? Pon Farr and its ramifications: if T'Pol has to go through Pon Farr with Trip how does that affect her relationship with them, both working and personal? IWhat about T'Pol's relationships with her family and friends back on Vulcan? What about T'Pol's neurological damage, how does that affect things? Or just a normal episode-like shenanigans!

Please ignore the last episode.

Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic, episode: "These are the Voyages ..."



TNG
I love alien culture worldbuilding, boldly going, exploring, wacky science hijinks, time travel, AU shenanigans. I love the hopeful attitude that we can become better than we are. I love cross-cultural romance (especially when it deals realistically with having to figure out what compromises each is going to make on what they expect out of a relationship--love is not all you need, you also need a lot of hard work and communication).

As for plot ... it's Star Trek. If you want to play it serious, go for it. If you want to lean into wacky tropes, that's great too. As long as everyone is in character, feel free to go as cracktastic as you want with the time travel and travel to alternate universes and weird missions.

Guinan is awesome, but please tone down the Magical Negro stereotype--she's not just The Wise Magic Advisor. She's got her own prejudices and traumas. I would love anything that dove into her past or her culture. Picard and Guinan have INCREDIBLE chemistry. Watch Time's Arrow and see the way he LOOKS AT HER. Something with time travel and meeting in the wrong order a la Time's Arrow would be interesting, but so would them hanging out together and being friends. Or an adventure from before they were together on Enterprise. Or an AU where Picard doesn't get back to the present in Time's Arrow because he stays with her, and then they have adventures trying to find a way to send him forward in time. I don't like most of the Picard TV show, but I do appreciate Picard and Guinan's stuff.

Riker/Ro: the episode where they have amnesia is amazing, I love stories that deal with what happened afterwards. Before that, they have such great conflict, because Riker is trying to manage Ro and not connecting with her, and Ro has Problems With Authority (unless she independently has come to respect the individual, as with Picard). Then they have amnesia and sleep together! And then they try to pretend it never happened.

Geordi was great. Professional in the face of all the wackiness Star Trek could throw at him, very smart, very compassionate. Aside from that one episode with the genetically engineered society, they didn't do much with his blindness besides "disabilities give you superpowers" with his visor. What are the downsides to it? What, if any, tradeoffs did he have to make, and was it his choice or something his parents decided for him? Does he ever get grief from fellow officers about "what happens if your visor gets knocked off, you'll be blind!" as if not being able to see would make him incompetent? He and Data have that wonderful friendship that is rock solid that I love to see explored and transmuted into romance.

Deanna Troi/Worf: This is three different cultures, and 'human' is the place in the middle that they both understand, but I'd be interested in something that explored the 'alien' cultures and didn't assume 'human' as normal. Klingon gender roles are that the women are loud and violent and the men read love poetry. Deanna's more the poetry type than the loud and violent type, and I'm not sure how much of a soft side Worf has. So neither of them quite 'fit' Klingon gender/sexual norms. Feel free to bring in the perspective Martok and the others had on mental illness when they were trapped in that Dominion prison camp, that mental illness is an enemy to fight and it takes a lot of strength to fight an enemy in your own head. From that perspective, Deanna is a weapons trainer for the mind.

Picard & Ro: I love the friendship and mentorship they have despite (or maybe because of) their differences, and the mutual trust they built. I'd be interested in an episode-type story set before she defected to the Maquis, or an AU where she didn't for some reason, or something after the Dominion War when she's no longer a terrorist. Or a role-reversal AU where Bajor is the perfect paradise world that's the founder of the Federation and provides most of the people for Starfleet, and Earth is the one conquered by the Cardassians. I absolutely LOVE Ro Laren, she's such a contrast to the rest of them.

Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic



Babylon 5
Ah, the fandom of my youth! This was my first fandom that was mine, and not just something the family watched together. I love the layering of the themes, and how you can watch it on multiple levels (action/adventure, character arcs, political allegory, deeper themes about truth and freedom and who are you and what do you want and why are you here). The characters and their story arcs were all so compelling. One of the things I love about Babylon 5 is that there were so many characters where the fact that they were antagonists didn't mean they were stupid or bad people, just people with a different perspective honestly trying to do what is right.

I especially love Minbari culture. If you do worldbuilding for Minbari culture, past, present, or future, I will love you forever. I consider "To Dream in the City of Sorrows" canon and firmly believe that when Sinclair went into the past and became Valen, he found Catherine again after she was lost in time.

Stephen Franklin was a terribly underused character I love his warmth and the strong unbendable core of his ethics, and my two favorite people to see him with are Susan and Marcus. I love the playfulness of Marcus and Stephen together, although I headcanon Marcus as a romantic ace (or possibly demisexual). (Feel free to change Marcus' fate.) Maybe Marcus and Stephen get together on Mars when they're pretending to be a couple! Maybe Stephen saves Marcus' life when he tries to throw it away to save Susan, and that changes things between them.

What if Neroon survived somehow and had to learn to be religious caste? Or maybe something exploring his earlier career, or his relationship with Branmer, or the complexities and frustrations of his encounters with Delenn, or his time on the Gray Council.

I love John and Delenn together, but she is way too smart for him and I like it best when he knows he's a bit out of his league and a bit uncomfortable at all the alien stuff (and yet maybe a bit excited by it under the surface). The political implications of their relationship, on both Earth and Minbar, fascinate me.

Susan/Marcus! I think Susan would be much more comfortable with Marcus if all he wanted was a good screw, without all the feelings. I headcanon Marcus as a romantic ace or demi, so he'd be fine with no sex at all, but what he really wants is the feelings. How they negotiate this can be very interesting. (Feel free to change Marcus' fate.) Also, the religious tags aren't just for Minbari religion; you could do something of the two of them celebrating Jewish holidays or rituals.

How would Neroon and John get along as part of a marriage? What about John and Lennier? What if John were the only human in a four-person marriage, how would he handle that and how would the rest of them handle him? So many possibilities.

Is there a problem on Babylon 5 that needs to get solved? Is there some Minbari cultural rite or Earthforce political intrigue? Is the PsiCorps making trouble? I'd also love something post-series about peace-building.

Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic



The Goblin EmperorI love how hopepunk this series is: yes, terrible things have happened, and yes, there are genuinely evil people, and yes, there are people who aren't evil but are nonetheless really awful. And yet, despite it all, good people win. There are people who can be trusted to be good, and kind, and loyal. I love how three-dimensional everyone is, not just the heroes but the villains, too. If you wanted to bring in historical flourishes, I'd be happy with parallels to European history, but I'd be ECSTATIC if you brought in non-Western ideas, practices, structures, clothing styles, and institutions.

Is sedoretu the norm at all levels of society? Do both Goblins and Elves practice it? What does it do to Varenechibel's marital history--were there two spouses he kept and he just kept swapping out the fourth?

Vedero and Maia as two parts of a sedoretu (sharing the same moiety, of course) means that any of the children born to the sedoretu are children of the Imperial line; does that mean that Vedero's child with Csevet or Nurevis (depending on which you write) could be the next Emperor? (What political shenanigans would that cause? What pressures? I bet a lot of people would then be wanting Maia and Csethiro to not have kids until after Vedero has had several ...) If Chavar could have gotten Nurevis in, he would have pushed that instead of his niece; would he have found that Nurevis was much less willing to bow to his wishes once he wasn't dependent on his father? What (if anything) would that do to Chavar's participating in a coup? Does it push it back until a few months after the wedding when it's clear it hasn't cemented his hold over Maia? If Chavar doesn't stage a coup, how does that change things (and how does Maia get rid of him when he's not just the Chancellor, but Maia's father-in-law)? If he does, what is that like, what does it do to the marriage?

Chenelo lives! There are so many possibilities. I'm fine with either "she was never sick" or "she got medical treatment she was denied in canon and got better" or pretty much anything. I'm interested in AUs where she was never relegated, or where she lived in relegation with Maia until he inherited, or even where she was relegated and then Varenechibel brought her back to court for some reason. (This is a perfect place for "villain has amnesia"--if Varenechibel hit his head and forgot everything, he'd still be a cold and unpleasant person; but if he didn't remember being in love with Pazhiro, he might not resent Chenelo as much, and might rank "diplomatic relationship with Barizhan" as more important than "my personal resentment".) Or maybe her half sister the pirate came and stole her and Maia away and they've lived quite happily in a foreign land until Varenechibel and his older sons died in the crash. Or maybe Varenechibel dies before she gets relegated, and then the Elvish court marries her off because they need a reason to keep her (and Maia) in the Ethuveraz, because while Maru would probably only want Maia as an heir because he doesn't have one, what if he wants Maia so that his heir will have a claim to the throne of the Ethuveraz ...

Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic

musesfool: !!!! from Middleman (!!!!)
[personal profile] musesfool
I swear, sometimes I think my oven is some kind of black hole or something, because sometimes the laws of physics seem to weirdly not apply. Yesterday, as planned, I made teriyaki meatballs. Because I don't understand how the recipe author got 28 meatballs out of 16 oz of ground meat, I had 32 oz of ground chicken, from which I made 28 ping pong ball sized meatballs. I baked 16 meatballs on one tray at 400°F for 20 minutes. It was the only tray in the oven. FOURTEEN out of the 16 were at least at 170°F when I took them out of the oven (generally I aim for 165° for fully cooked ground chicken) and checked with my instant read thermometer. TWO were at 143°F. They weren't even next to each other! Just 2 random meatballs that somehow didn't cook to the same temperature as EVERY OTHER meatball on the same tray in the same oven. I mean, I know ovens can have hot spots, so does my oven somehow have cool spots? Less hot spots? I mean, what the actual fuck???

*
gentlyepigrams: (food)
[personal profile] gentlyepigrams
At the last minute last week we got an email about Uchiko Plano having a Father's Day omokase so I got us a reservation. I documented what we ate on my instagram starting with the special menu.

When we started eating at Uchi and Uchiko when we moved to Austin almost 20 years ago (yikes) Uchi was more formal and Uchiko was more casual. Not that Uchi was ever really formal, just that the level of service was more formal and the menu was a little more upscale. Now that there are Uchi and Uchi variants everywhere, they all have a kind of personality, and Uchiko is the one with the wood grilled bold flavors.

This was our first time at the Plano Uchiko; it's less than a year old, IIRC. Our foodie friends from Austin were not impressed with it for an early try-on. It's still stumbling a little in the service: our dishes arrived out of order, we got an extra dish and a second dessert for the delay, and with a 7:45 reservation we had to rush to get our car out of valet hock at 10 pm. The food, however, was amazing and up to standard. The highlight was the duck confit, but everything was very good.

I would go back to Uchiko again, but I would park and walk so I could get my own car if they ran late and it would definitely be a Monday or Tuesday night kind of thing in the hopes that a slower evening would improve the order of food from the kitchen. That said, we're also very happy with making Uchiba our regular spot in the Uchi kingdom, so it's not a high priority. We have a list of sushi places we want to eat on our list and maybe Uchiko will come back after we've tried some of the ones new to us.
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