singularity

beatrice_otter

So my

rarepairexchange assignment did not show up in my email inbox! It did show up

ursamajor

I did not end up making a dessert for choir this week that magically used any portion of our eleven cups of plum jam in the fridge. I made chocolate chip cookies, and they disappeared like magic (the only empty container on the snack table when I went to clean up after break!) and I got multiple compliments on them *preens*.

It was my usual recipe, doubled because I used the oversized 20 oz Ghirardelli bag of semisweet chips, and then I went through my spice cabinet and pulled out baharat and rosewater. Though I've made a couple of adjustments over the years, and didn't actually write them down online, so here, have my ( go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. )

Ugh, I need a new chocolate icon, FJKR.

That being said, I went by Market Hall this morning since the internet said they were my local carrier for the See's Candy x McConnell's Ice Cream collab - they didn't have all the flavors, but they did have Coffee + Molasses Chips, so that got promptly plopped into my bike basket.

But while I was there, I also perused the other things they had available, and the regular old standard size 12 oz bag of Guittard semisweet chocolate chips was SIXTEEN GODDAMNED DOLLARS I HATE THIS TIMELINE.

Even checking online right now - Berkeley Bowl is claiming $12.39/bag, Guittard direct says $11.99/bag, and I am wondering how many bags of the semisweet I can order via my farmshare at $7.49/bag before they cut me off. Ghirardelli is still available at Berkeley Bowl for $8.79/bag, but I'm wondering for how much longer - before this summer, both of these were pretty close price matches, maybe 50c/bag difference and not always consistently in the same direction depending on what supermarket I was at? This feels like when vanilla prices exponentially spiked a few years ago and my $50 of vanilla backstock was suddenly worth $300.

... the farmshare website dropdown goes to 20 items. I'm not sure I want to be talked out of this. (I will probably buy at least 4, I am literally down to my last bag of chocolate chips and I usually have half a dozen bags on hand at any given time.)

Current Mood: indescribable
Current Music: this is the straw, final straw

runpunkrun

While I was away from my keyboard at the start of the year, Dr. Stéphane Pigeon was busy creating a bunch of new soundscapes! Here's a round up of all the new generators he's posted this year:

The Nyquist Frontier: An electronic music generator that sounds like it's coming straight to you from the 1980s. I felt like The Pet Shop Boys were about to start singing at any moment. Comes with a little history lesson about synthesizers.

Glacier Lagoon: Recorded in Iceland! Lots of different water noises here, including ice. Play around with the sliders to combine them. I like the "Fresh Water" presets with lapping waves and some of the underwater recordings (the four on the right) thrown in.

Flock Of Flutter: Well, this isn't what it sounds like at all. It's not birds, it's a Swiffer duster attached to a motor that causes it to brush against crumpled kraft paper, creating a warm white noise (though perhaps closer to what's called pink noise), similar to the steady hum of a fan.

Organic White: A white noise generator created from carefully selected recordings of wind and rain. Unlike synthetic white noise, which is unchanging, this has a bit more texture and variation to it.

Indigo Amanita: Dr. Pigeon's attempt at Goa Trance, which I'm unfamiliar with, but is, apparently, a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the early 1990s in the Indian state of Goa. It's upbeat.

Floating: From Dr. Pigeon's description: An ambient soundscape for deep relaxation, Floating avoids rhythm and melody, using slowly evolving textures and warm low-frequency tones to help the mind slow down by removing musical expectations.

Upstream: This soundscape traces the path of a waterfall back to its source, a small stream.

Uganda Tales: Recorded on the shores of Lake Victoria in Uganda. I recommend trying the presets to experience the many different pairings of natural sounds, music, and human speech this soundscape offers.

Glacier Chorus: More from Iceland. This time it's underwater sounds recorded in a glacier lagoon. Dr. Pigeon writes, "At times, you might think you're hearing birds or sea creatures. But these sounds don't come from any animals. They all are the voice of the glacier itself. As the glacier melts, the ice cracks and groans under its own heavy weight and small rocks that were once frozen inside are freed and tumble down the ice. Underwater, tiny air bubbles that were trapped in the ice pop and fizz as they escape."

Gong Bath — ft. Reggie Hubbard: A meditation in vibrations, taken from a live recording during a public sound bath at Kripalu. Dr. Pigeon writes, "These are not sounds that say, 'everything is fine.' These are sounds that ask questions. That challenge your sense of ease. That's why gongs are so powerful in meditation: they don't lull you — they awaken you. They agitate the quiet — revealing what usually lies buried beneath." Which is a very generous way to say that this sounds like the soundtrack to a horror movie.

The Architect's Eclipse: Space ambient music. This one sounds like a more relaxed version of the soundtrack to the movie Cube.

Icelandic Shores: A sea, wind, and rain noise generator. Very similar vibes to that of the beloved Irish Coast Soundscape, only recorded in Iceland. This is for you if you like your beaches cold and windy.

Now we're all caught up!

If you want to keep up with the myNoise news, Dr. Pigeon has left corporate social media, but there are plenty of other ways to get updates. You can follow myNoise.net on Mastodon or wherever you access the Fediverse. You can subscribe to his mailing list that notifies you of new soundscapes. Or you can follow the myNoise RSS feed in your favorite RSS reader or here at Dreamwidth at

mynoise_feed.

scaramouche

Caroline P. Murphy's The Pope's Daughter is another book I got ages ago, probably at a warehouse sale? I can no longer remember but the pages are weathered with time, which is a shame because I would've read it earlier if it wasn't stuck at the back of the drawer of unread books, under books I've been procrastinating over even more. The book is not about Lucrezia Borgia! It's about a lesser-known Pope's daughter (so is my impression of her relative fame), Felice della Rovere, illegitimate daughter of Cardinal Guliano della Rovere, later Pope Julius II, aka The Warrior Pope.

Murphy's book is well-paced and put together, though she uses conjecture quite a lot on Felice's motivations and emotional state behind some of her actions, and though Felice does on paper come off as consistent in action and intelligence, I'm not as much convinced by the declaration that she was definitely ambitious and arrogant to that level. But what makes Felice interesting, I think, is the contrast she makes to her peer Lucrezia (whose father was pope before Julius II), where when I read about Lucrezia (and Caterina Sforza) that makes Italy feel so vicious and violent and decadent, which it was, but then there's Felice who navigated that same world and didn't get into any scandals, and the major dramas of her life were (1) her youthful resistance to remarrying after her first husband died, though she did capitulate eventually for a husband she worked well with, and (2) her stepson protesting her power over the family to his detriment, which aren't really scandals per se.

Felice was good at politicking, networking, running businesses, running multiple estates, all with keeping a close relationship with Vatican both before and her father was in power. Felice patronized Michelangelo, lived through the Holy Roman Empire's sack of Rome, and saw multiple changes in the Vatican through her own ability to form relationships. She may not have had a passionate (second) marriage, but it was a functional one that worked. She was powerful, but also professional and well-behaved within the constraints of that power and her gender, which doesn't make for a popular historical figure to write about. It gives nuance to what it was like for powerful, intelligent women to live in that era and location, with her crossing paths with Lucrezia, Isabella d'Este and briefly a young Catherine Medici who was warded to her. And I think that's neat.

Current Mood: complacent
Current Music: Coolio - I'll CU when you get there

beatrice_otter

Stolen from tumblr.

Each of these categories has literally hundreds of fic I could rec, so I am literally just … mentioning the one that comes up first in my head, not trying to decide which one is the best.

( A fic that lives in my brain rent-free )

( A fic that is not posted on AO3. )

( A fic that is less than 5,000 words )

( A fic that is over 50,000 words )

( A gen fic (no pairings) )

( A fic that does something cool with format or structure (epistolary, social media, 5 things, non-linear, etc.) )

( A fic that uses a trope you love. )

( Recommend a fic with an interesting premise/concept. )

( Recommend a fic from a book fandom )

( Recommend a fic that is more than 10 years old )

( Recommend a fic you think is a hidden gem/deserves more reads )

( Recommend a fic that formed or changed your opinion on something (characterization, backstory, relationship, etc.) )

( Recommend a fic you’ve re-read multiple times )

14. Recommend your favorite fic.

Aha. Ahahaha. Ahahahahaha. You expect me to narrow this down? Here are all my bookmarks on Pinboard and here are all my bookmarks on AO3. Have fun. (Everything is the same in those two places, except that Pinboard also has all the fic that isn’t on AO3 and AO3 only has the stuff that is on AO3.)

( Any fic of your choice )

azurelunatic

Visiting the out-laws with Belovedest. Last night we had dinner out at the Dirty Bird (chicken bar & grill) so this morning's breakfast is leftovers. Which I had in bed, due to the scarcity of tables in the hotel room, and my general unwillingness to get out of bed before nine.

Unfortunately, breakfast was crispy chicken Caesar salad, with buffalo sauce on the side. And after I finished that, I was dipping baby carrots in the sauce. And there was a spill.

I can't seem to face up to the facts
I'm tense and nervous and I can't relax
I can't sleep, 'cause my bed's on fire
Don't touch me, I'm a real live wire
Spicy pillow, qu'est-ce que c'est?
Fa-fa-fa-fa, fa-fa-fa-fa, far better
Run-run, run-run-run away
Oh-oh-oh

Current Mood: silly
Current Location: far away
Current Music: The Talking Heads

beatrice_otter

I use the same name everywhere so I am

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

other things to keeep 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.

The Goblin Emperor Series - Katherine Addison

Arbelan Drazharan/Maru Sevraseched
I can see them having so much fun together when he visits. They're both old enough to know what they want and how to get it discreetly, they're both outside the normal court bullshit, and Arbelan's gone through enough trouble. Let her have some fun.

Chenelo Drazharan/Marquess Lanthevel (TGE)
I have no idea how this might come about, but the premise intrigues me. Did Chenelo survive relegation, and come back to court with Maia after Varenechibel's death, and go looking for allies to help her son's reign be stable? Is V'bel just 2% less a jerk and doesn't relegate her and Maia, but they're still persona non grata at court, and she and Lanthevel come to be friends and then have to dance around the edges of what they can safely do (because V'bel is looking for an excuse to divorce her)?

Chenelo Drazharan/Nemolis Drazhar (TGE)
V'bel already had several grown sons by the time the marriage with Chenelo was arranged; surely Maru would have wanted his grandson to be an emperor, instead of merely another younger son? The political maneuverings around this must have been really interesting, but also, the few glimpses we get of Nemolis is of a kind, thoughtful man who is a good husband and father. I don't care whether they fall in love or not, but I'd love to see the two of them working together and being partners in a difficult situation. Either when they're first married or later.

Eiru Berenar/Arbelan Drazharan (TGE)
Does Arbelan marry him instead of V'bel (and thus have a much nicer life)? Do they start up something when she comes back to court? Please no cheating—maybe his wife is marnis and they have an Understanding. I just want Arbelan to have good things.

Nemriän Drazhin/Maru Sevraseched (TGE)
So what are the POLITICS of this? Did the marriage with Chenelo not happen? Did it go better? Is Maru using this marriage to pressure V'bel into treating Chenelo and Maia better ("If you don't take better care of my daughter and grandson, I'll do the same or worse to Nemriän)? What were the pressures that were making it advantageous for the Ethuveraz and Barizhan to have closer ties? (Notably, Barizhan has a coast and the Ethuveraz doesn't, and their major river goes right through Barizhan to the sea. If Barizhan wants to cut off the Ethuveraz's trade, they have every capability of doing so.) Does Maru get a legitimate son and heir out of the marriage, or another daughter, and what happens then?

Shaleän Sevraseched/Shaleän Sevraseched's Wife (TGE)
Pirates! Have fun!

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

Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers

I would love a casefic, but also, all of these are such interesting characters, I'd love to go deeper into their dynamics.

Charles Parker/Mary Wimsey (Peter Wimsey)
Everybody treats Mary like she's a child who doesn't know her own mind, but she is only five years younger than Peter. In Clouds of Witness, she is 28 years old. I deeply dislike Sayers' trope of women who take up the interests of the men they fall in love with; I want her to be a leftie out of her own conviction. (Is that the reason it takes her and Charles so long to get together? He's so staid and conservative; maybe it took a while to negotiate what their relationship was going to be like.) I want her to get the respect she is denied by the narrative, and I want Charles to have someone he can have reasoned intellectual disagreements with. (I love that he reads theology for fun.)

Charles Parker/Peter Wimsey (Peter Wimsey)
Is Charles really okay with Peter leaving him with all the footwork all the time? Is there ever a time when Peter is wrong and Charles is right? Peter went to a boys' school, and situational homosexuality is a thing, besides his general cosmopolitanness; does Charles have more problem with it than Peter does? They are both such deeply principled men, and they have the principles of their class and time; does "living in sin" bother them? The fact that they can't be open and honest about it?

Colonel Marchbanks/Mrs Marchbanks (Peter Wimsey)
The Marchbanks are so stodgy, but also very decent people. I would love to see more of them. Maybe something during the war, where they're both dealing with the fact that this is not like the wars he's served in in the past? Maybe a house party at Duke's Denver goes deeply wrong (in a non-murdery way)?

Freddy Arbuthnot/Rachel Levy (Peter Wimsey)
Freddy's brainpower is only concentrated in his one area, but in that area he's very good, and he seems to be a kind enough man … and one willing to move beyond his prejudices. I'd love their courtship from Rachel's point of view, or maybe something from later on after their marriage. I would be equally thrilled for something that expands these two characters but treads lightly on the antisemitism of the time as I would be for something that dives deep into it. (What do they do before WWII as conditions for Jews are worsening, especially in Europe?)

Mervyn Bunter/Harriet Vane/Peter Wimsey (Peter Wimsey)
I absolutely cannot buy that Peter and Harriet's relationship would go the same way if he was in a pre-existing relationship with Bunter. Bunter is not like his mistresses, which bring mutual pleasure and enjoyment but have little real depth of feeling and are largely separate from his day-to-day life; Peter depends on Bunter for his healing and sanity. There are "jokes" in canon about how Bunter is basically his wife. It is an extremely important relationship to Peter, and I can't see sex making that less important. So he would not immediately propose in a jail cell, because he's basically already married and there would have to be a lot of negotiation before things went forward with Harriet. (When he visits Sylvia and Eiluned is he sounding them out discreetly as to how okay she is with gay men and threesomes?) There are so many points along their courtship and relationship where things would have changed based on that. I'd love to see them explored. Or you could have P/B not be pre-existing, and something about Harriet changes the dynamic enough that they have a belated relationship and end up in a triad where Harriet is the pre-existing partner? Or maybe a true menage a trois?

Mervyn Bunter/Peter Wimsey (Peter Wimsey)
When do they get together? During the war? After it? How does it affect their cases, and their social circle? Who knows about it (Bunter's mother? The Dowager Duchess? Charles Parker?)? How do they navigate the issues of Peter's fluctuating mental health? How does it affect their cases?

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

Star Wars Original Trilogy

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. (It's not on tumblr any longer, but the podfic and transcript of it are here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18219923) Also, Weird Jedi Shit is always fun.

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

Crossover Fandom

Bertram "Bertie" Wooster (Jeeves and Wooster)/Harriet Vane (Peter Wimsey)
Look, Harriet Vane is far from the worst person he's ever gotten accidentally engaged to, but he still doesn't want to be married. For a fun twist on the usual J&W plot, what if there's some reason that she feels her honor is engaged? Being a sensible woman, I'd think Jeeves' approach this time might be to just … talk with her and explain the whole situation and find a way out of it that satisfies them both. And then shenanigans happen, and they go away with no hard feelings.

Donna Noble (Doctor Who)/Lando Calrissian (Star Wars)
I think Donna would be suspicious of Lando's charm, but also really enjoy him flirting with her, and they'd have a great time together (while the Doctor just wanders around confused in the background). Maybe she saves Cloud City through the power of temping and bureaucracy, maybe she helps him conning some people who really deserve it pre-Cloud City, maybe she helps him on a rebellion mission, maybe they meet on vacation.

Elinor Dashwood (Sense and Sensibility)/William Laurence (Temeraire)
Two people of deep reserve, intelligence, and honor—there are so many ways they could have an interesting relationship, and so many ways their respective book plots would complicate that. I'd love to see it.

Martha Jones (Doctor Who)/Peter Grant (Rivers of London)
Peter would love to meet an actual alien, and I think a case where he has to do with weirdness that's not magic related would be good for him. I think there would be a lot of mutual wariness and misunderstandings, because she's going to assume aliens and he's going to assume magic, and she would probably assume that his powers are, like psychic stuff or whatever.

Martha Jones (Doctor Who)/Stephen Franklin (B5)
Two doctors with both compassion and determination, willing to go to the limit to do the right thing and save people (and sometimes the world). You could do so many interesting things with that—fit Martha and the Doctor into a B5 typical plot, or maybe Martha gets stranded and starts working at the clinic in Downbelow to make ends meet while she waits for the Doctor to come pick her up.

Natasha Romanov (MCU)/Bruce Wayne (DCU)
Do they meet on a mission? Are they targeting the same person? Is Natasha sent in to find out who the Batman is? Does Bruce go looking for "what is SHIELD and what are they doing at that base in Gotham?" Does she moonlight as an actual supermodel for a while to build up one of her covers, and get invited to a party at Wayne Manor? Any incarnation of Bruce Wayne is fine with me.

Peggy Carter (Agent Carter)/Diana (Wonder Woman)
I am fine with any version of Diana. I would LOVE to see them on a case during/after WWII, or working together during Peggy Carter's days as director of SHIELD. I think they could bond over lost loves (and over a shared love of hitting bad people very hard). Secret identity shenanigans would also be interesting.

Peggy Carter (Agent Carter)/Henry "Indiana" Jones (Indiana Jones)
I don't like Temple of Doom, but Crystal Skull is ok. Given that HYDRA was going after mystical artifacts, you know they had to have crossed Indy, or maybe the SSR/SHIELD needed his expertise. Also, he canonically has a thing for competent brunettes, so.

Phryne Fisher (Miss Fisher)/Peggy Carter (Agent Carter)
Adventures! Is the Honorable Phryne Fisher also an agent of the SSR? Does one of Peggy's cases post-war take her to Australia?

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

Babylon 5 (TV 1993)

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.

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.

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.

Catherine Sakai/Jeffrey Sinclair (Babylon 5)
I love stories where Jeffrey/Valen meet up with her again in the past. But I would also be interested in stories about the two of them juggling their relationship and their respective careers, or the changes once he's assigned as ambassador to Minbar.

Delenn/John Sheridan/? (Babylon 5)
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. Then you add in either Neroon or Lennier, and what happens? I don't think John would be terribly comfortable with it; three may be holy on Minbar, but John sure didn't like Lennier's love for Delenn. What if Neroon survived somehow and had to learn to be religious caste? How would Neroon and John get along as part of a marriage? What about John and Lennier?

Delenn/Neroon, Lennier/Neroon (Babylon 5)
Neroon survives AU! 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. Delenn has dealings with Neroon, and Lennier is her go-between, and then Neroon has Opinions about Lennier's attempts at trying to subsume his romantic feelings into service and pretend he's just fine with John Sheridan, and things snowball from there.

Marcus Cole/Neroon (Babylon 5)
They only really interact in that one episode, but it is FASCINATING. Marcus changes Neroon's whole perspective; I don't think he could have done what he did, later, without it. Either something where Neroon survives or something where he doesn't could be interesting. Or maybe Neroon figures out how to save Marcus. This could be tragic or happy ending or something set earlier before either of them dies.

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

Sense8 (TV)

Hernando Fuentes/Lito Rodriguez/Daniela Velasquez (Sense8)
I love the worldbuilding and the characters, and what I most want is what happens NEXT. And I'm curious for both the immediate lives of the cluster (I love them all), but also for the larger world of sensate clusters. Do they start building their own culture, now that it's safer? What scars have been left by the corporate exploitation and murder? What continuing steps are needed to get rid of the lingering influence of BPO? Does the larger world ever learn about sensates, and what happens to the cluster then?

I love Sun's contradictions and complexity, I love Capheus's heart and courage, I love Lito's drama and sweetness, I love Nita and Nomi's trust and mutual devotion (and Amanita's quick thinking), I love the way Lito and Hernando's relationship grew and the way Daniela became a true partner for them and they have a relationship with her that's as important as a marriage but not romantic/sexual in the traditional sense. I love the way all of the cluster interacts and how together they are so much more than the sum of their parts, and I love watching all of them grow and become more truly themselves as they become entiwned in one another. (And I wonder what it would be like for clusters that weren't so well-suited, if that might be part of where Whispers came from.)

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

Star Trek: 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/Jean-Luc Picard (TNG)
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. I don't like most of the Picard TV show, but I do appreciate Picard and Guinan's stuff.

Jean-Luc Picard/Kamala (TNG)
Picard/Kamala, the "empathic metamorph" who imprinted on Picard but then went on to her arranged marriage anyway? On the one hand, you have the appeal of the whole soulmate trope, and on the other you have the ickyness of how that works for an empathic metamorph, but on the other hand, he was the one she chose, and then you've got the political aspects. Even once she's free do either of them want a long-term relationship, despite the fact that they are perfectly matched?

I see it as unrequited, unless dude Kamala married died in an accident and she left the planet. Even then, I don't know that she would have sought him out. I like that her choice was just that--her choice. And in a shitty situation, she chose to bond with the person whose desires made her into someone she wanted to be. I wonder what she did after? Obviously, duty and ethics are very important to her. But what does that mean, in the long run, given her situation? Does she use her position to advocate for change, or just endure until her husband died and then leave after he dies (she's a lot younger than he is)? OTOH, what happens if something happened and the Enterprise had to go back to the planet she married into?

Jean-Luc Picard/Ro Laren (TNG)
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.

K'Ehleyr/Worf (TNG)
I love Klingons, PARTICULARLY when they're written with depth. The warrior ethos shapes their entire culture, but it's not the only thing about them. Worf/K'Ehleyr: K'Ehleyr rejects much of what Worf is desperately trying to cling to. And Worf's view of Klingons is very one-dimensional, almost an outsider's view, because of his upbringing. If she had lived and they'd had to actually work things out, that would have been fascinating. Not to mention very different views on how to raise Alexander.

William Riker/Deanna Troi/Worf (TNG)
Deanna Troi/Worf (TNG)
This is three different cultures, and 'human' is the place in the middle that they all 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.

Deanna/Will, there's history, not all of it good, and a reason they haven't been together for a long time. With Worf and either of them, there's not that baggage.

William Riker/Ro Laren
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.

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

Star Trek: TOS

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. 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 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.

Montgomery "Scotty" Scott/Nyota Uhura (ST: TOS)
Between the two of them, they really do keep the ship running when the Big Three are off having their adventures. And we see them closer in the movies. I'd love to see how they got there.

Spock/Nyota Uhura (Star Trek: The Original Series)
My headcanon on Vulcans was shaped by 80s Trek novels but I also enjoy trying to fit the Star Trek: Enterprise Vulcans with ... everything else we know about Vulcans. One thing I will point out, though, is that while there are a lot of things about Vulcan culture that seem/are sexist, the most powerful Vulcans we see throughout the series are elderly women. I love Pon Farr, but mostly dealing with the implications of it (both before and after) and not the sex part.

I love Spock/Uhura, they had such great chemistry in TOS (better, actually, than in the AOS). There's such mutual respect and such playfulness, it's wonderful. And please don't disrupt the canon relationships with Kirk—obviously he and Spock are incredibly important to one another, but also, Kirk and Uhura are such besties, too, I love their mutual respect.

T'Pring/Nyota Uhura (ST:TOS)
I have no idea how this would work but I am fascinated by the premise. An AU where T'Pring was the one who went to Starfleet and Spock stayed on Vulcan? Uhura as a teacher of languages at the Vulcan Science Academy while Enterprise is being refitted? Uhura wants a pen pal to practice her Vulcan with and Spock suggests his betrothed? T'Pring and Nyota encounter each other when Nyota is on Vulcan during Star Trek III?

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

Star Trek: Voyager

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.

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).

My headcanon on Vulcans was shaped by 80s Trek novels but I also enjoy trying to fit the Star Trek: Enterprise Vulcans with ... everything else we know about Vulcans. One thing I will point out, though, is that while there are a lot of things about Vulcan culture that seem/are sexist, the most powerful Vulcans we see throughout the series are elderly women. I love Pon Farr, but mostly dealing with the implications of it (both before and after) and not the sex part.

I think Kate Mulgrew did an excellent job of playing Janeway despite the inconsistent writing she was given, and I love the way Tuvok was definitely a Vulcan but also a very different Vulcan than Spock. And I think their friendship was a foundation for both of them, having someone they'd known and trusted for years while so far from home. She's very casual about touching his hands, and he's fine with it. Whether it's just for Pon Farr or something deeper and longer lasting, I'm here for it.

Prompts: Day in the life stuff about dealing with the challenges of being so far from home and the top-ranking loyal Starfleet officers. Maybe something set early on dealing with Tuvok's suspicion of the Maquis (and their suspicion of him) and Janeway trying to bring the crew together would be interesting. Pre-series stuff about how they came to be close. Post-series stuff--I mean, it's great, they're both glad to be home, but they've changed and the Federation has changed. (Has Tuvok's wife moved on/remarried?) If you wanted to handle Pon Farr and/or them becoming a couple, I would enjoy that too. Or something dealing with the aftermath of the episode Blood Fever, which I would imagine made Pon Farr and/or Vulcans a really public topic of discussion on the ship. (It's not something that could have been easily hushed up!) Another idea: some Vulcan festival is coming up, and the Vulcans are going to have a hard time celebrating it so far from home, so Tuvok and Janeway have to get creative to figure out how to handle it.

T'Pel/Tuvok: I would be happy with ANYTHING, there is NO fic for this pairing. What's their marriage like, with him gone all the time? What was she doing while he was off being a rebellious teenager? What was she doing while he was on Voyager, and what was it like when he came home?

If none of that appeals ... 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.

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

Still Star-Crossed (TV)

Benvolio Montague/Rosaline Capulet
So much potential, cut so tragically short. I would love just about anything that showed What Happened Next, or maybe an AU where things happen differently (take just about any canon event and play it out), or maybe far in the future after they're married and things have settled down. What roles do they play, together, in establishing a lasting peace? Do other Shakespeare characters wander through?

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

runpunkrun

You Gotta Eat: Real-Life Strategies for Feeding Yourself When Cooking Feels Impossible, by Margaret Eby:

A gentle and funny book about how to feed yourself when that seems impossible.

This book offers three things: permission, inspiration, and recipes, in about those proportions if this were a list of ingredients. The chapters are arranged in increasing order of effort, from, basically, eating straight out of the fridge, right up to chopping stuff up and turning on the oven.

Each chapter starts with a theme and a bunch of ideas about how to turn things like eggs, greens, beans, noodles, dumplings, and canned foods into a meal, then finishes with one or two basic "do exactly this" recipes. The permission is throughout. Yes, it's okay to eat popcorn for dinner. Yes, a dip is a meal. Yes, you can just eat cheese with your hands. I gotta say, though, there is A LOT of cheese and dairy in this book. And, it's true, if I could eat dairy, a lot of my eating problems would be solved, but alas.

Still, I love the energy of the book and how funny and relentlessly kind Eby is. From the introduction:

When food felt like a chore, I kept reminding myself: the best food is the food that you'll eat. This is the mantra of this book. Michael Pollan famously had three rules for eating: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." That's nice for him! Here, we're gonna stop with the first one. And we're going to make it easy.

And there are a lot of easy ideas in here! Frittatas! Hummus! Smoothies! For when you're too tired to even chew!

This is more of a survival guide than a cookbook, though, as some of the cooking advice is a bit on the thin side, and if you're new to cooking, you might not know, for example, that you'll want to undercook pasta if you're putting it into a casserole, something Eby fails to mention. The book is probably best for someone who already knows the basics, but just can't imagine lifting a spoon or picking up a frying pan. Eby has a lot of suggestions for things to cook in the toaster oven and the microwave, and the most involved this book gets is casseroles and stirfrys. There are even two (2) quick desserts.

Recommended! Though if you have dietary restrictions, you'll have to do the extra work yourself to make this book work for you (just like every other day) and large sections of it might not, but I think it's still worth it for the inspiration and the reminder to go easy on yourself. You're doing the best you can.

bethbethbeth

Helpful hint if you're becoming more disabled as you age or as a condition progresses (i.e., if you're new to seeking travel assistance): figure out what sorts of thing are challenges for you in your day to day life, and see how the airports you'll be using can help.

In my case: I have relatively bad arthritis (some weeks worse than others), use a cane, have balance issues and intermittent vertigo.

The two airports I used (O'Hare in Chicago and Sea-Tac in Seattle) are usually both on the lists of reasonably accessible airports (guides, braille elevator signs, etc), and both had free wheelchairs. This would have been great given the extremely long terminal hallways without moving sidewalks, but unfortunately, it was too late by the time I found out.

Knowing about the free wheelchairs would have been especially useful when I was heading home. The TSA lines were wildly long at Sea-Tac and even though I explained my difficulty with standing in lines to SeaTac staff, I was told I had to go to the regular line (note: a roving TSA agent ended up - unprompted (although I probably looked bedraggled :D) - moving me to a faster line, but once you invoke a disability, accommodations should be made as a matter of course.

My return trip from Sea-Tac (after 5 days of hobbling around WorldCon) was also problematic given the inclines between each gate in Terminal D. Why do you have to trudge uphill with teenagers sitting on the side ledges, hanging their legs over the banisters? I shall probably never know.

Plus, there was no seating accessible to me at SeaTac. All the chairs would have been perfectly comfortable for me to sit in, but my cartilage-light knees & my vertigo won't usually allow me to get up facing forward without something to touch for balance in front of me once I'm up. I usually need to turn sideways to get up from a chair (unless it's a relatively tall chair) and touch the back for balance (unless I'm sitting next to a wall), which isn't possible with rows of freestanding chairs that all have armrests and all face each other. In my case, I found a lovely guy at the gate next to my departure gate (my gate personnel weren't there yet) who basically stole a wheelchair (the basic airport wheelchairs are just hard chairs on wheels with movable armrests, i.e., my favorites) and brought me to my departure gate, leaving me to sit in the stolen - and oddly comfortable - chair next to something I could use for balance later for the next hour. This was great, but it took me 25 minutes finding somebody to help)

Note: when I was heading to Seattle, O'Hare's departure gate did have chairs without armrests which made it easy for me to stand up without tipping over onto my face. I don't know whether having some chairs without armrests are part of ADA compliance, but even the lobby for O'Hare's car rental and bus pickup facility had a few of those. Thank you, O'Hare.

On the plus side, there were gender free bathrooms at O'Hare (single user) and at SeaTac (including multi user). I only used the one at SeaTac and the stalls all had full-length doors, which - let's be real - all public restrooms should have. I did overhear a youngish girl - maybe 12? - expressing shock to her slightly older sister about that, but then her parents said "Go in and pee. Our flight's going to be boarding soon." Good work, parents,

blueraccoon

Morgan and I both went to Worldcon this year, since it was in Seattle. Due to my lack of job we had to cancel the hotel, and for other reasons we somewhat fumbled the ball on dog logistics, but we sort of made it work anyway. We missed the con on Wednesday due to logistics, but Thursday morning we dropped them both off at the sitter and headed to light rail to go to the con. We got going a bit later than intended because I woke up with a migraine.

We ended up having to drive home and take Uber to the park & ride because there was no parking, and Friday we didn't even try to drive to the P&R. So that was a little stressful, but we got on the light rail eventually and made it into the city and got our badges and all that fun stuff. We did miss our 10:30am panels, but we peeked at the dealer's hall.

I went to a noon panel called "And I'm All Out of Spoons" about being a disabled creator and the challenges inherent in that, and it was pretty decent but I found myself a little frustrated with the panelists' general avoidance of the fact that sometimes you have to suck it up and do the thing no matter how you feel because this world is unfair and uncaring. Someone specifically asked "how do you manage that" and the answer was "be selfish" and yeah, I get that, but also, acknowledging "Yeah, sometimes it's gonna suck and you're gonna have to push yourself beyond your limits because bills have to get paid" would have been nice.

After that I got lunch with Krispy and a couple friends of hers, and then we came back and wandered the art show for a bit. I started a 3pm panel on slang, but it ended up being mostly about cursing, and I really had to pee and found myself just generally irritated by the panel (likely related to needing to pee) so I left about halfway through to find a bathroom and did not return. I wasn't feeling super great after that so I went home. Morgan stayed later.

Friday we had a smoother trip into the city and started with a panel on Queering History, which was excellent and I got to meet one of my uglydog friends who was in town for the con. She, Morgan, and I wandered the art show after that and then Morgan and I went to get lunch. We skipped our 1:30pm panels because I had a workshop at 3pm and was trying to save spoons.

But Friday afternoon I had a workshop called "Writing the Other" run by Nisi Shawl and K. Tempest Bradford, and it was so, so good. They run the site Writing the Other, which is full of resources and classes and workshops on how to write diverse characters and stories.

We did a couple exercises on character analysis and creation and it was really, really good. They gave us a matrix to use to see how your characters break down in different aspects and suggested we use it for major characters in our works to see if there are similarities or if we have diversity. They showed us an axis with Tradition and Values as the Y endpoints and Time and Place as the X endpoints, and we talked a little bit about each of those four categories, and then we did some free writing to create a character based on those four categories.

I don't know if I was cheating or not but it was really easy for me to figure out who my character was and where he fit into my fantasy world and I was able to figure out a lot about him just in a few minutes. This is so drastically opposite how I normally create characters and I am still not sure I have a name for this guy, normally that's the first thing I come up with, but it was a lot of fun and I think this guy is going to be interesting if I end up using him.

I did buy the book Writing the Other, which Nisi co-wrote, and they both highly recommended Steering the Craft by Ursula K. LeGuin and since for some reason that cost me $0.11 as an ebook I bought it.

I had honestly expected to be exhausted after the workshop but I was pretty jazzed, so I went to a 6pm panel on "Worldbuilding through Mythos, Magic, and Beliefs" which was pretty interesting. Fonda Lee was one of the panelists and she was brilliant and now I want to look up her books. There was another writer who had a book Morgan and I were interested in but it's only available in the UK at the moment.

Morgan and I left after that, though, and went home and got food and crashed.

Saturday I woke up going "ow" and knew I would pay later but I went to the con. I went to a panel on "worldbuilding through structures of society" which had some of the same people as the magic/mythos panel, and was also pretty interesting. A lot of tips about the day to day lives, like "what do the people actually do and believe instead of what does tradition say they do?"

I wandered a bit after that, met with my friend torque and played some pinball, then Morgan and I got terrible con pizza for lunch and wandered the dealer's hall and bought a lot of books. She bought mostly physical books, I bought mostly ebooks. My ebook count is currently up to 12 and I've lost count of the physical books we bought, although I'm not going to read some of them. I was really happy that some of the dealers were able to directly sell me ebooks, and for the authors or anyone who just said "Amazon" I tried to purchase it right then so they knew I'd bought it. I have found dealers/authors generally really appreciate it when you do this because a lot of times people say "Oh I'll get the ebook" and wander off and...did you just make a sale? who knows! So it's nice to know "Yes, this person bought it". One author gave me a free pin as a result.

I bought a piece of embroidery that's a spray bottle with NO on it, it made me laugh so hard I had to get it. I bought a journal that says "Probably Smut" on the cover - truth in advertising - and a set of foam dice that are really nicely sized for stress fidgets. Some stickers. And I got a tiara from the art show, although Morgan has to pick that up for me today.

I wasn't sure I'd make it to my 3pm panel but I really wanted to attend, so I made it happen. That was called "Is it Appropriation: Writing the Other" and talked about cultural exchange versus appropriation and how to write cultures other than your own without veering into appropriation. (tl;dr do your research and talk to people whose lived experience is what you want to write.) They suggested the "100 books" concept: before you write a culture other than your own, read/consume 100 pieces of media written by people from that culture.

I did go home after that, though, I'd hit my limit. There was a panel on future history I was interested in, and then there was the "Make it gay" panel, and then there was a reading I was going to go to, but I was just wiped and needed to leave. Morgan went to the "make it gay" panel but it turned out to be fanfic-focused which is not her thing, so she tapped out halfway through.

Sunday I stayed home because my body is one big OW and there's a migraine threatening to hit as soon as I step into the bright sunlight. All the panels I wanted to attend are streaming today, though, so I'll be able to watch them later. I had a feeling this was going to happen after how I felt yesterday. I probably could have pushed myself and gone today but dear God I would hate everything later and tomorrow and I decided to be nice to myself and stay home.

Everyone had all these ribbons on their badges and I was just like "where do y'all get these things?" because I never really saw them. I got one, a guy gave me a ribbon that said "Wheelchair is freedom!" which I loved because truth. But I never saw where to get all the ribbons other people had. I'm not cool enough, I guess.

The only writer I had a personal exchange with all weekend was Ryan North, and that was because when I went to my Saturday afternoon panel he was still in the room from the previous panel and I went up to him and was like "I have nothing for you to sign but I'm a big fan and my wife and I have most of your books" and we talked for a little bit. He's so nice, and so fucking talented. He did tell me to wait on the Krypto miniseries until it's all out because apparently issue 4 is sad and he felt badly about people having to wait a month for the happier issue 5. I said I would just wait and read them all once it's all out and he said that was an excellent idea.

So that was very cool.

I would probably have made it to more of the con if we'd kept the hotel room, but due to finances we didn't feel we could swing it. We are pretty agreed we don't want to commute again, though. It's really a crip tax for me. Both Thursday and Saturday I felt like if I'd been able to escape for an hour and take a short nap I'd have been able to go back and be fine, but I didn't have that option. I probably would have made it today if I hadn't had the commute, at least for a little bit. Oh well. (Someone hire me.)

Book count: I have purchased 12 ebooks. I have no idea how many physical books we bought; I took 7 home in my backpack Saturday but I don't know how many more Morgan had and what else she bought when I wasn't around. I have an easier time reading ebooks these days but I am interested in some of the paperbacks.

( the ebook list )

( Physical books (may be updated) )

azurelunatic

Thursday's appointment was one that I knew was going to stir up trauma. The doctor ended up listing that aspect of it as PTSD, which I guess is fair. I always have thought of it as "trauma" rather than PTSD, which is kind of odd in retrospect.

I wound up taking a small dose of my "street cred" when I realized I was starting to have a trauma response. That turned out to be a good idea. There's a follow up in a few months, and I should pre-medicate for it.

Afterwards I got the 32 oz reverse mocha from a local coffee shack. (Not one of the bikini coffee shacks.) With chocolate whipped cream, thank you very much. My first time encountering white coffee espresso in a drink. Interesting and almost floral. I had Belovedest (a bitter supertaster) try it. Still coffee tasting, but not as strongly.

Although that's also possibly due to me only having 3 shots of espresso in the drink instead of the usual 6.

I would much rather discuss the coffee than the source of the trauma and the appointment, in any event.

beatrice_otter

I will be at Worldcon this week, starting on Thursday. If any of you are going to be there and want to meet up, please DM me and let me know!

runpunkrun

What if your life was a TV show? Would you be the star or a background character?

Willis Wu lives and works in Chinatown and dreams of being Kung Fu Guy, just like his father before him, but Will's role in life—or in the script—is more Generic Asian Man Number Three. Then he falls for Attractive Lady Cop and has to make a choice between a family life in the suburbs or the job he's always wanted.

This is one of those stories that's more about an idea than a character, and more a thesis than a story. The idea is interesting and the thesis is credible—and completely spelled out for you in a courtroom scene at the end in case you somehow missed it—but the characters have the stock feel of a parable and gave me little reason to care about their struggles as they toil in a system that's been stacked against them for centuries.

The system is racist as shit and Yu supports this with real world examples but doesn't do much to personalize it for his characters. He does dramatize it, literally, as parts are in script format, but even much of that is intentionally clichéd, and despite some early ??? as I wondered what the fuck was going on, I didn't find this challenging or exciting, but I think it did what it meant to.

Contains: cops; racism (including stereotypes and slurs); elder care; poverty; generational trauma; pomo; second person perspective.

azurelunatic

I have:

* 3 appointments tomorrow, all remote (for later today versions of "tomorrow", because I rarely get to sleep before midnight)
* 2 appointments Wednesday
* Only one appointment Thursday, but it looks like a doozy
* The morning primary care adjacent appointment on Wednesday got scheduled today (Monday) by using the magic combination of phrases "my oncologist said" and "new lump"
* (it's probably a ganglion cyst, since I have a history of those going back to the 1980s)

And then I managed to drive myself to Pained Noises & a complete lack of energy today by:
* ( Read more... )

beatrice_otter

I use the same name everywhere so I am

General Likes and Dislikes

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.

Historical Fiction and Fantasy

The Goblin Emperor Series - Katherine Addison
Kate and Cecelia - Caroline Stevermer & Patricia Wrede
Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Persuasion - Jane Austen
Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
Doctor Who 2005

With these fandoms, I'd be fascinated to see how the worldbuilding fits together. Is Middle Earth on the other side of the ocean from the Ethuveraz, and what's that clash like when they encounter one another? What do Tolkien's elves think of the Ethuveraz elves, and vice versa? (Is Dachensol Habrobar, the extremely-long-lived person who makes sigil rings in the Ethuveraz, a Tolkien-style Elf?) Do Elizabeth and Will meet up with Maia's sister the lesbian pirate captain? (James Norrington would do much better in an Austen story than in PotC.) Can an Austen heroine do magic? (What's Sir Walter Elliot's opinion of Mr. Norrell?) If there was a connection between the Bennets and the Elliots, would Mrs. Bennet try to cling on to the Elliots as tightly as Sir Walter clings on to his cousin Lady Dalrymple? (Of course she would.) With Mansfield Park, I'm firmly of the opinion that Henry Crawford would have made Fanny miserable in the long run, so if you don't like Fanny/Edward or Fanny/Mary, this is the perfect opportunity for a crossover pairing. Or no pairing, give her a dragon instead! Everything is better with dragons.

I specified Doctor Who 2005 and Goblin Emperor because you can't have two parts of the same canon in the same request, but I love all Doctor Who and the Cemeteries of Amalo books. So if you are inspired to do an earlier Doctor or stuff from Amalo instead, feel free!

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

Early 20th Century Detectives and SF/F

Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Agatha Christie's Poirot (TV)
Agent Carter (TV)
Jeeves & Wooster
The Old Guard (Movies)
Young Wizards - Diane Duane
The Mummy (Movies 1999-2008)
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (TV)

All of these characters are interesting and eccentric, most of them solve mysteries (and the rest cause them), I want to hear about how they met or what they're like if they live in the same universe. Is Miss Climpson a Young Wizard-style wizard? She probably wasn't very powerful even when young, but then, she always did find that attention to insignificant details was at least as effective as the more flashy stuff. Does Peter or Harriet cross paths with Evy in academia, or while holidaying somewhere Evy and Rick are doing a dig? (Does Peter work with Rick on intelligence work during WWII?) Would Peggy Carter try to recruit Phrynne for the SSR? What happens if the Old Guard are at a country house party for some reason and someone tries to kill them--what happens to a mystery when the murder victim resurrects--do they pretend to be dead so they don't get revealed, do they try to tell the detective who killed them? What if Captain America is at a country house party for diplomatic reasons and people start dropping dead and someone tries to frame him and he has to work with the detective to identify the true culprit? If all else fails, most of them take place during/near WWII, and you can put together almost anyone either during a mission or while on leave back in England or something.

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

AI and Wormholes and War

The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Doctor Who (2005)
Star Wars: the Original Series
Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Imperial Radch Series - Ann Leckie
The ArchAndroid - Janelle Monáe
Babylon 5 (TV 1993)

(Most of) These canons have things to say about personhood, power, government, culture, and doing the right thing, and I would be interested in seeing them compared and contrasted. While I only listed one Doctor Who (because we can't do things that might get us matched on two parts of the same fandom) I would be fine with any Doctor of any era. I want to know what Murderbot thinks of R2-D2 (and what R2 thinks of Murderbot). I want to know what ART thinks of the Cylons, and what the Cylons think about ART. (And if ART and Murderbot were to drop a virus into Cylon systems that revealed the truth about the Final Five and all the shit the Ones got up to, and trashed the governor modules on the Centurions on the way out, that would be awesome.) Or Murderbot getting trapped in the Colonial Fleet masquerading as a human because these people like constructs even less than most humans like SecUnits. How much can the Doctor fix (or break in a better way) before he/she leaves? What characters would make interesting companions? What would happen if the Colonial Fleet found themselves in Barrayaran space? (Or Cetagandan, or Jacksonian, or Betan?) What would Breq think about the Cardassians or the Dominion (or the Federation)? And, of course, everything is better with wizards.

What characters would make interesting companions? What are the wizards doing in the BSG world? (Can Cylons be wizards, and what would happen if one was? How would that work with their whole sharing memory/uploading/downloading thing?) What do the technomages think of the wizards, and vice versa ... or is "technowizard" a way of getting around sevarfrith status? What would Laura Roslin think of the Minbari, and would telepaths be able to sense Cylons? Did either the Vorlons or the Shadows have anything to do with the repeating cycle of evolution/Cylon creation/destruction that BSG is stuck in?

Some of these are easier to fit together than others. For example, Murderbot can pop up anywhere and fit into any canon, because if there's a difference in the sociopolitics or the way interstellar travel works between Murderbot canon and whatever series you're putting MB in, it can be handwaved away as "Murderbot doesn't care and therefore didn't notice." The Doctor can pop up anywhere, and wizards are also very adaptable. With Star Trek and Star Wars, both series show enough of the galaxy and enough of galactic history, and have different enough physics that it's a bit tougher. But still doable! Ye Olde Wormhole/Alternate Universe can work wonders.

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

Modern World, part 1

Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch
Sense8 (TV)
Young Wizards
Stargate SG-1
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Dirty Computer - Janelle Monáe (Music Video)
A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
Superman Returns (2006) or Superman (Movie 2025)
Criminal Minds (US TV)
Pitch

With these fandoms, I would love either worldbuilding (how do you fit superheroes and genius loci into one universe? Duane's wizards and Aaronovitch's? The Old Guard's immortality vs. Nightingale, Varvara, the Old Soldiers, and various other immortals of the demi monde?) or character stuff (put the characters in a room together, see how they get along or don't) or exploration of social issues that are implicit or implied in the canons. Also, wizards make everything better, and I am fascinated by the concept of sensate clusters. Take characters, make them part of a sensate cluster--preferably a diverse world-spanning cluster, like the one in the show. (OCs are fine as part of the cluster!) Or what would happen to any of the characters in any of the series if they died and became part of the Old Guard? Does Nile watch Genny Baker's games whenever she has a chance? Peter would totally be a superhero fanboy, and also, if Judgment Day happens, and Terminators have microchips, all of a sudden being a wizard is a superpower to save the world. On the other hand, what if Sarah and John et al ended up in Britain and got tangled up in a case? What would Peter make of time travel?

I love all of the Sense8 cluster, but my faves are Nomi, Lito, and Capheus. Of all the Old Guard, Booker is least interesting to me.

I specified Superman Returns here, but I would be just as happy to receive Superman 2025 crossed with any of these others.

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

Modern World Part 2

Calvin & Hobbes
A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
Dirty Computer - Janelle Monáe (Music Video)
Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Batman: The Animated Series
Superman Returns (2006) or Superman (Movie 2025)
Sense8 (TV)
Fandom For Robots - Vina Jie-Min Prasad

The main theme of these canons to me is young people, imagination, and hope. I'd love worldbuilding and fitting these stories together; I'd also love character moments. There's already an amazing "what if Calvin was a wizard" story, but another would be awesome. What would a wizard be doing in the Dirty Computer dystopia? Or Gotham? What if Bruce Wayne or Dick Grayson were sensates? (Or, God forbid, Harley Quinn? Pity the poor cluster! OTOH, if they can convince her to get away from the Joker, that would be great.) What would the Timmverse Batman think of either the 2006 or 2025 Supermans? Could Computron be a wizard? What if Calvin ended up as a Robin?

I specified Superman Returns here, but I would be just as happy to receive Superman 2025 crossed with any of these others.

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

Modern World, Part 3

Fandom For Robots - Vina Jie-Min Prasad
The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
Superman 2025
A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
Star Trek: The Next Generation

Robots being people! What does Murderbot think of Hyperdimension Warp Record? What does Computron think of the Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon? If either of them met up with Data, what would they talk about? If Computron is in the DCAU, are there other sentient robots? Is there anything Superman might need Computron's help on? What would happen if Murderbot needed to team up with the Justice League, or Batman? What if Camazotz came after Earth, and the Justice League or Starfleet needed Meg's help to defeat the IT? What if Charles Wallace and Computron got to talk for a bit? What if Computron got to visit the Fortress?

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

Modern World -- Apocalypse Edition

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Pacific Rim (Movies)
Sense8 (TV)
The ArchAndroid - Janelle Monáe
Dirty Computer - Janelle Monáe (Music Video)
Young Wizards - Diane Duane
The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
Sleepy Hollow (TV)

Yes, most of these are post-apocalyptic or dystopian in some way. But they also have at least the seed of hope: of escape, of change, of something better being possible. And they're also about personhood, about choice, about AI and civil rights and cancelling the apocalypse.

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

runpunkrun

turn this way
I am also lonely
this autumn evening
-1690

Translation by Jane Reichhold.

( 俳句 )

azurelunatic

https://comicbook.com/anime/news/homestuck-animated-series-hazbin-hotel-creators/

From the little I've absorbed about Hazbin Hotel, the creators might just be the correct kind of disturbed to do justice to Homestuck.

runpunkrun

[Found this in my drafts. It was written in 2016, but I'm still mad.]

So, the Downton Abbey series finale was an endless parade of reproducing heterosexuals. Though, thanks to Thomas, it still wasn't as unrelentingly straight as the LOST finale, and you know you done fucked up if Downton Abbey is gayer than your time-slippy post-modern science fiction fantasy island show.

Anyway, I'm still super mad that Mary Crawley stole Alicia Florick's boyfriend. Julianna Margulies and Matthew Goode had amazing chemistry, and then he left her for England and an unconvincing romance with the daughter of a lord, though he's still very handsome.

I think I stopped caring about the show somewhere around the part where Julian Fellowes decided to give Anna the gift of sexual assault, but I kept watching out of inertia and love for Dame Maggie Smith.

As for The Good Wife finale, it made me cry to have Will back, even if it wasn't real, and even if it made me worry Alicia was about to have a stroke or something—she really did love him, but she made the choice to not be with him, and that's put her where she is today, still choosing to stand by her worthless husband because of the power and security it gives her and maybe she loses someone else because of it, two someone elses, because Diane is pissed. I liked that the ending was ambiguous. Because maybe Alicia didn't deserve a happy ending. Maybe she had the chance, a couple chances, and didn't take them.

beatrice_otter

It's always fun to try out the Vulcan Name Generator. This time I got some doozies.
The first two: T'Kok and Suk.

While I think that a very ... interesting fic could be written about T'Kok and Suk, I do not think I would be the person to write that fic.

Star Trek Reboot Fic

(no subject)

the moon sometimes looks like a C, but you can't eat that!

myNoise.net update

Book Log: The Pope's Daughter

Fic Rec Ask Game

Michigan, again

Dear RarePear Author

You Gotta Eat, by Margaret Eby

Even with ADA, you still have to work to make airports accessible for you

worldcon

Extreme amounts of "fun"

Worldcon 2025

Interior Chinatown, by Charles Yu

Appointment Week

Dear Crossworks Author

#681, Bashō

....!!!

Speaking of Matthew Goode...

(no subject)

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