Via foxmoth, this is a brilliant meme but also a challenging one! With a certain degree of "oh well, I guess that one does fit..."

Lust, books I want to read for their cover:
- Taylor Jenkins Reid, Atmosphere (OK I have read it but I would have picked it up just for the cover, UK edn)
- Andrew Porter, The Imagined Life
- Benjamin Wood, Seascraper

Pride, challenging books I've finished:
- Uwe Johnson, Anniversaries
- Laszlo Krasnahorkai, War and War
- JRR Tolkien, Hobbitinn (The Hobbit in Icelandic)

Gluttony, books I've read more than once:
- Alaistair Reynolds, Redemption Ark
- Sergei and Marina Dyachenko, Vita Nostra
- Jon Krakauer, Into Thin Air (I like reading this on airplanes, God help me)

Sloth, books on my to-read list the longest:
- David Bentley Hart, The Beauty of the Infinite
- Milorad Pavić, Dictionary of the Khazars
- Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

Greed, books I own multiple editions of:
- Mary Renault, Return to Night
- (...plus various books in multiple languages but I think that's the only one with multiple editions in English)

Wrath, books I despised:
- RF Huang, Babel
- Don DeLillo, Underworld (I want so much to like this but I don't)
- Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

Envy, books I want to live in:
- My own

As seen all around these parts, the AO3 alphabet meme:

Rules: How many letters of the alphabet have you used for [starting] a fic title? One fic per line, 'A' and 'The' do not count for 'a' and 't'. Post your score out of 26 at the end, along with your total fic count.

A - Another Gravity (Firefly, Mal/Zoe)
B - The Boys of Summer (Hot Corner Rag) (SPN, Sam & Dean)
C - Courtship Rituals of the World's Most Awkward Superheroes (Avengers/Amazing Spider-Man, Steve/Peter)
D - the dream of flight persists (Star Wars/Firefly, Anakin/Kaylee)
E - Eight the Hard Way (Ocean's 8, Amita/Daphne)
F - The Forces Ranged Within Us and Against Us (SPN, Sam/Dean)
G - Girl, You're Like a Weird Vacation (Blue Beetle, Brenda/Paco)
H - The Hubbert Peak (Dark Angel, Max/Alec)
I - The Injurious Internet Meme Incursion (The Middleman, Wendy, MM, & Ida)
J - Joy has he whom she embraces (Amelia Peabody, Peabody/Emerson)
K - Katie, Bar the Door (DCU, Jason, ensemble)
L - A Little Less Conversation, a Little More Action (Ocean's 11, Danny/Rusty)
M - Mother Is the Name for God (Star Wars, Leia & Padme)
N - No Exit (Star Wars; Darth Vader/Ahsoka)
O - Only where love and need are one (L'Engleverse, Adam/Joshua)
P - Paint a thank-you on my palm (Six of Crows, Inej, ensemble)
Q - Quality (LotR, Faramir)
R - Retail Therapy (DCU, Cass, ensemble)
S - Stuck in the Middle with You (Star Wars, Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka)
T - There's Still Time to Change the Road You're On (Star Wars, Anakin, Luke, Leia)
U - Until the Sea Shall Free Them (The Iliad, Achilles/Patroclus)
V - Visiting Hours (DCU, Alfred & Jason)
W - with our way lit only by stars (Earthsea, Ged/Tenar)
X - Xue Bai, Xue Hong (Firefly, Mal/River/Simon)
Y - you and your high top sneakers and your sailor tattoos (Avengers, Steve/Darcy)
Z - The Zombie Love Bug Concatenation (SPN/The Middleman, Dean/Wendy)

26/26, out of 950 stories on AO3. I ignored the ones that start with parentheticals and numbers. I also went mostly on vibes, so it's not a real overview of my stuff, but it is one title for every letter of the alphabet.

*

For me, the Sundial project is a fun exercise in balancing contrasts among yarn colorways, a few at a time, while using lightweight remnants (mostly US fingering weight, UK 4-ply).

Hadn't occurred to me till taking this picture, but the scarf-thing has begun inadvertently with the cover hues of Alif the Unseen, 01 and 02 below. Some remnants below are already used up; others may recur.
( smol pic, then yarn colorways )

From astrogirl. Clearly, I must write stories to cover the J and X gaps.


Rules: How many letters of the alphabet have you used for starting a fic title? One fic per line, ‘A’ and 'The’ do not count for 'a’ and ’t’. Post your score out of 26 at the end, along with your total fic count.



A - Age of Iron (I Medici, Lorenzo "Il Magnifico" de' Medici/Francesco de' Pazzi)

B - Bad Reputation (16th Century CE RPF, Barbara Blomberg & Fernando Álverez Toledo III. Duque de Alba)

C - Cover her face ( The King's Touch - Jude Morgan, 17th Century RPF; Henriette Anne Stuart (Henriette d'Angleterre)

D - Discordance (Merlin (TV), Morgana & Gwen)

E - Eve of Destruction (To Walk Invisible (2016), 19th Century RPF, Branwell Bronte/ Joseph Bentley Leyland)

F - Five ways in which Frederick the Great and Maria Theresia did not meet (18th Century CE RPF, Frederick the Great & Maria Theresia)

G - Graham O'Brien's Survival Kit for Companions (Doctor Who, Graham O'Brien & Thirteenth Doctor)

H - Here lie we (Merlin (TV), Gwen & Morgana)

I - Invicta (3rd Century CE RPF, Helena (Mother of Constantine)


J -

K -Kin (Merlin (TV), Arthur & Morgana)

L - Learning Frederick (18th Century CE RPF, Frederick the Great/Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf)

M - Murder in Florence (16th Century RPF, Margaret of Parma, Alessandro "Il Moro" de'Medici/ Lorenzo "Lorenzino" di Pierfrancesco de' Medici)

N - Nusquam (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Ziyal & Dukat)

O - Opposites (Beatles RPF, Yoko Ono, Yoko Ono & Paul McCartney)

P - Prussian Doll (18th Century RPF, Frederick the Great & Prince Henry of Prussia, Frederick the Great/Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf)

Q - Queen's Gambit (Don Carlos - Friedrich Schiller, Elisabeth de Valois & Princess Eboli, Elisabeth de Valois & Philipp II of Spain)

R - Repercutio (Babylon 5, Londo Mollari & G'kar)

S - She blinded me with science (18th Century RPF', Émilie du Chatelet/Voltaire)

T - Till our shadows blend (Babylon 5, Delenn & Londo Mollari)

U - Unforgivable (Angel the Series, Holtz & Connor)

V - Vita Guineveris (Merlin (TV), Gwen (Guinevere)

W - We happy few (Beatles RPF, Brian Epstein & The Beatles)

X -

Y - You should see me in a crown (18th Century CE RPF, Catherine the Great & Prince Henry of Prussia)

Z - Zinc Man (The Americans (TV), Elizabeth Jennings/Philip Jennings)


That's 24 letters out of 275 stories. For easiness, I started with the most recent ones, but even so, clearly history is a dominating theme. Also, I would have bet Z to be the most difficult letter to find, but no, The Americans came through for me.

I made this apple cider doughnut holes recipe today and meh. I didn't even like them enough plain to make the glaze. They just tasted so strongly of nutmeg to me and nothing of apple cider or even cinnamon.

I was also going to make char siu today and then pork buns with the leftovers tomorrow, but I forgot the meat has to marinate overnight so now I will make the ribs tomorrow, freeze the leftovers, and try to make the buns next weekend. Or maybe I'll just make pork fried rice. Idk. I used to always order pork buns but I don't see them on menus anymore (lemon chicken, another Chinese restaurant fave, has also seemed to disappear, at least from the places around here), so it would be fantastic if I could make them myself. It doesn't seem too hard. I mean, the hardest part for me will probably be rolling and sealing them. *hands* Eventually we'll see!

In other news, Baby Miss L has settled on being a witch for Halloween and her costume is ADORABLE. But she also has a secondary costume, as she has quite the busy social schedule, which is a cow, which doubles as pajamas, for those nights where she's out past bedtime. SO CUTE. I also got some pictures of her pumpkin picking while wearing a jack o'lantern t-shirt and she remains the cutest and best dressed kid around. 😍😍😍😍😍😍

*

Good morning, afternoon, and evening!

We're doing some database and other light server maintenance this weekend (upgrading the version of MySQL we use in particular, but also probably doing some CDN work.)

I expect all of this to be pretty invisible except for some small "couple of minute" blips as we switch between machines, but there's a chance you will notice something untoward. I'll keep an eye on comments as per usual.

Ta for now!

https://actionnetwork.org/letters/scrap-the-bathroom-ban

From TransActual and Trans+ Solidarity Alliance. Produces a template letter to your MP which you can customize as much as you can or want to.

Article by Jane Fae of TransActual (who have been absolutely kicking ass):

https://www.scenemag.co.uk/jane-fae-a-director-of-transactual-writes-on-the-eve-of-launching-a-new-campaign-to-get-mps-to-reject-the-ehrcs-bathroom-ban/

There are now a bunch of Labour MPs who are worried and making noises at the government, even if it's only about the impact on businesses of rules which are possibly illegal and impossible to follow without getting sued:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/oct/23/dozens-of-labour-mps-warn-of-chaos-for-firms-over-gender-recognition-advice

It's alleged that Bridget Phillipson was sitting on the guidance because she was worried it'd scupper her bid for the deputy leadership, whereas Powell is actively trans-friendly and has called for MPs to have a chance to debate and vote on the guidance.

The below may be an overly optimistic view but it seems clear there's tension and conflict between the EHRC and government:

https://iandunt.substack.com/p/frightened-and-desperate-ehrc-anti (warning for Substack, in case you are boycotting it)

So this is a moment when leverage is possible, and letters to your MP may actually do something.

Chess is a show I know entirely through the cast recordings; if I recall correctly, it was such a thoroughly Cold War project that the liner notes referred to the two chess players as only "the American" and "the Russian". The new book by Danny Strong turns it into a (even more) melodramatic period piece, with the chess matches not simply a allegory for political tensions or a way of obtaining minor diplomatic concessions but tools for averting World War III. The Arbiter is dragooned as a narrator, who exposits both the global situation and the personal interactions with the characters, partly through a series of very bad and very obvious jokes.

Freddie Trumper, American grandmaster and obnoxious wunderkind, is challenged by Anatoly Sergievesky, mordant, depressed, and engaged in a clandestine flirtation with Freddie's chess second and lover, Florence Vassy. Freddie is notoriously a weak point in the original book, so prone to anti-Communist slurs, misogyny, and temper tantrums it is impossible to extend him much sympathy. The new version mitigates this by giving him bipolar disorder and medical noncompliance, and also by casting Aaron Tveit. Tveit is indeed so good and so charismatic that I was on Freddie's side way more than I expected, although not enough to take self-pity anthem "Pity the Child" seriously. (The rest of the audience seemed less skeptical.) Lea Michele as Florence is just as strong vocally, and almost as strong in terms of acting, though unfortunately without much romantic chemistry with either partner. (The closest any scene comes to a sexual charge is Freddie's sleazy half-assed attempt at persuading Anatoly to throw the game in Act II.) Nicholas Christopher as Anatoly is the weak point in Act I, where I had the same opinion as I had of his Sweeney Todd: he's got the potential to be great, but he isn't quite there yet. He really needs to work on his emoting, which is too flat even for the murderous Sweeney or the dour Anatoly. He is greatly handicapped in Chess by having to affect a Russian accent, which I really hope the production drops. But! He pulled out all stops in Act II, both for the songs and the acting, and won me over with his intensity and vocal power.

So basically: the book is still flawed and they need to cut the runtime, particularly in Act I. This was the second night of previews, so there's still time for changes before the show technically "opens". If we're lucky, they'll start by cutting the topical jokes.

But the point of Chess has never been the book; it is the score full of bangers and power ballads. The music is by ABBA's Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus and the lyrics by Ulvaeus and Tim Rice. And the musical performances are GREAT. I am still guiltily fond of the kinda-no-really-very-racist "One Night in Bangkok" (which can plausibly be explained as Freddie's typical white guy take on the city) and which in this production is a camp masterpiece. I am seriously tempted to see the show again just for that.

My dear writer, hello! Thank you for writing for me, and for having a bang-up taste in canons. I'm listing a mix of likes and prompts for my requests, but honestly, mostly I'm looking forward to your delight in the story you want to tell - go wild, and happy tide <3

For the reference, I'm egelantier and egelantier. Also for the reference: I'm definitely open to treats!

Likes

• hurt/comfort! all kinds, all flavors, physical, emotional, both, go for it. i prefer the whippings and crucifixions and dungeon rescues more then light colds and mild mishaps end of spectrum, but that's about it.
• loyalty, from formal (oaths, queens and knights, kneeling, bonds) to informal (family ties, friend ties, us-against-the-world, i-will-do-anything-for-you stuff)
• hope in the end of the tunnel, hope found in people and ties and doing the work together
• delicate glass canon characters showing off their cores of steel in extremis
• devoted caretaking without infantilization, bodyguards and carers and loyal retainers and so on
• weirdos banging together
• rebuilding the world-city-hamlet-house from scratch after the catastrophe
• characters stoically reflecting on how they're needed but not loved and it's absolutely okay, while actually being so loved
• nature as a living part of the story
• religious characters actually practicing their religion in a way that impacts their lives (this is mostly geared at fantasy religious, but if you know what you're talking about in terms of real world religion, go nuts)
• peaceful post-apocalyptic cities overtaken by grass and dandelions
• picaresques set in canons with colorful worldbuilding
• grounded, highly specific descriptions of doing things: if A&B are running that coffeehouse, do tell me where they buy their coffee and who chose their coffee machine and why and what went into their design decisions
• competence porn
• high concept AUs (fantasy, pirates, monks and nuns, space opera, history, and so on.)
• arranged marriages! or old-fashioned slavefics

Do Not Wants

• non-canon major character death (canon is fine unless i'm actively specifying I want a fix-it; presumed dead or died but came back are OK)
• rape/non-con
• PWP (I enjoy porny parts of the fics, especially if it's bdsm-flavored, but i'd rather it not be the main drive of the story)
• grimdark of there's no hope and there was no point even in trying and being kind is stupid and pointless variety
• unhappy endings
• infidelity and/or partner betrayal of any kind
• omegaverse, hanahaki, assigned soulmates
• modern gender/identity/neurodiversity terms when it's ahistorical or goes against worldbuilding (a character can be an autistic aromantic genderqueer bisexual in a polycule just fine, gimme, they'd just most likely not be called that)

requests and prompts

Benjamin January Mysteries - Barbara Hambly

Abishag Shaw, Livia Levesque

I deeply enjoy Shaw and his aw-shucks schtick and his deadly competence and his understated but deep loyalty to Ben and his family, and how carefully and mindfully and wholeheartedly he's ready to step over the racial divide between them. He's an unutterably lonely character, without roots or family of community of his own, and while he can't quite join Ben's, it's pretty obvious that they're one of the main sources of light in his life. Also he hurts very prettily and I love it for him.

And on the other side there's Livia, a deeply horrible woman who also was so deeply horribly done by you can't help but see where she's coming from - and I imagine she's lonely, too, after a lifetime of one selfish choice after another, all taken in the search of that elusive safety... She keeps shoring her walls up, and I think she nevertheless knows very well that's she might be building on the time. She fascinates me! And one got to admit, if you don't have to, like, deal with her, mama Levesque just slaps as a character, and her wit and her memory are sharp and awesome.

So. Those two probably won't be caught dead in one room together in a normal situation... but there's got to be something that will get them working as a team - most likely really bad danger to Ben, or maybe a mystery so tasty to Livia that she can't pass up the chance to get into it. (Ben can be an entirely offscreen character if needed, or play a vital part). Or something else! They're going to be the worst team ever, but also they're going to be an absolutely terrifying unstoppable force if they work in tandem. Yes please.

Winter's Orbit - Everina Maxwell

Kiem Tegnar

Look, I just really like Kiem. He reminds me of Freddy from Heyer's Cotillion - not necessarily the smartest person in any room, but his EQ is par excellence and his kindness is all the charts. I love that he's kind despite pretty much nothing in his upbringing or surroundings wants him to be kind, I love that he's Determined and Brave and Decent without getting on a high horse about it, I love that he's so invested into treating people around him like people, and that it never occurs to him to use or abuse. I love that he's been exiled to a monastery, and that he's a world-class meditator! And I sense that underneath all that healthy altruism his self-esteem issues run as deep and as complicated as Jainan's are, if maybe in a different direction.

So! Give me post-canon Kiem please, give me him finding his legs, or Jainan learning more about him as their marriage grows, or Jainan and Bel teaming up for some Kiem-centric issue. Or just some good old whump. Or Kiem dealing with his job or his charities or with politics, and slowly learning to be consciously unstoppable about it. Give him a chance to discover himself competent and complicated, and let me revel in it.

The Foundling - Georgette Heyer

Gideon Ware, Adolphus "Gilly" Ware

Your honor, those guys are in love! I love that Foundling is essentially a bildungsroman instead of a standard romance, and I love that Gilly goes on to have his big adventure, and Gideon has the faith in him to let him handle it - up to a point where Gilly does need his help, and then he drops everything and rushes to his rescue. I love the undercurrent of tension relating to titles/inheritance issues, and how Gideon's own father shortly suspects him of killing Gilly for the title... and how much it makes Gideon angry. I love how Gideon is slow and methodical and Gilly is kind and bright and yet surprisingly competent, and I imagine they share a pretty wicked sense of humor between them.

So... give me more! Post-canon, getting together, figuring it out, more Shenanigans, mutual rescues; fantasy AU (Gilly as a prince in trouble and Gideon as his heir apparent? fleeing from the coup? hm); all kinds of AUs, actually, i think it's interesting how this tension might play out in a different setting. Or, yes, some good fashioned whump. For one of them or for both of them! Let Gilly see how much Gideon cares, let Gideon has a front row seats to how unhinged Gilly can be when he's putting his back into it. Let them have some high-stakes fun.

역대급 영지 설계사 | The Greatest Estate Developer (Webcomic)

Kim Suho | Lloyd Frontera, Javier Asrahan, Alicia Magentano

Okay, so I adore how off the wall insane Kim Suho is, and yet how competent, and how both Javier and Alicia are so so so into it, at this point without reserve or holding back - all the while being open to how ridiculous his antics are. I love the complete lack of hinges in this trio, on all sides, and I love the tension between all that devotion and excitement flying in all directions... All the while Kim Suho keeps laughably underestimating how important he is to both Javier and Alicia, how much they're willing to do for him, and how much they love him. He's still stuck in his self-image of an impostor, and I think he's on some level pretty sure his value is solely in his use, for all his bluster and self-aggrandizement, and that's like catnip to me.

So! I'm caught up to the current state of canon and while canon-wise it's interesting, I just want like... see Alicia put a ring on it, and of course get Javier on board, and then see how poor Kim Suho manages to be a king-consort and how much insanity it will wrought and whether or not Alicia and Javier combined can hammer into his head that no, he IS loved and appreciated and seen. Even when he's not trying to work himself to death trying to fix yet another Situation (on a more serious note, I'm super intrigued by the idea of him laid low and unable to do shit - we know from canon that he self-isolates when depressive, and self-isolates in general, but what if they won't let him?).

Anyway. Yes. Whump is a plus, construction nerdery is a plus, administrivia is a plus, Alicia imparting some of the relationship wisdom with a healthy dose of BDSM is beyond a plus.

The Rising World Series - Martha Wells

Bashasa Calis, Kaiisteron

This pairing (romantic or platonic) essentially contains everything I love in a nice fictional relationship in a single package: overcompetence, utter devotion, mutual protectiveness and care, Kai imprinting on Bashasa for that first real spark of hope and then just never ever letting go, Bashasa taking constant and personal care of Kai - both his well-being and his dignity (I think the moment when Kai went from 'oh cool' to 'oh no I'm done for' was when he realized Bashasa made sure to take Enna's body from the Summer Halls.)

And on the other hand there's this undercurrent of tension with Bashasa's alcoholic coping strategies, and constant inability to truly protect each other - either from the war they're waging or from the complexities of establishing the peace afterward; and, of course, Kai having to see Bashasa grow old and die...

Anyway yes. Canon is tantalizing but there's just not enough of those two! Gimme skirmishes, gimme politicking and cultural shock, gimme epistolary bewilderment and outside POV of their contemporaries, gimme mutual hurt/comfort, gimme on-the-run-together, give me them giving some bodily, worshipful care to each other, just really dig into it. Raising Bashat together, doing the whole immortal-mortal family thing, teaching each other. Any other character is welcome in the mix (aside from Zeide and Tehren I'm tickled pink by Kai's cadre and the sheer concept of it, I love them, give me them). I'm done with both books, so post-canon, mid-canon, sideways from the canon, all is good for me. Divergence or fusion AUs are fun too (they would do really well in a nice old-school slavefic or an arranged marriage fic, you know?)

And that's it! Thank you for writing for me, and I hope you enjoy yourself; I can't wait.

I'm off work today because I had to go get a tooth crowned. They've streamlined the process since early last year, when I had to go one week for the preparation and then back again a week later for the installation - they did it all in one day today, with about a 30 minute break between parts 1 and 2, where I just sat in the exam chair and read my book on my phone. This time I had to stop them a couple of times during the first part because they just spray water everywhere without sufficient suction so I felt like I was drowning a couple of times. The dentist warned me about it ahead of time and was apologetic about it, so I didn't feel like I was too much of a problem patient for stopping so I could, you know, breathe. One of the things I like about this particular dentist (there's a bunch of them at the practice and I've seen most of them over the last 5 years) is that he tells you what he's going to go ahead of time and answers questions, and then he tells you each thing he's going to do during the process right before he does it, and he gives you a heads up as to how far along in the process you are/how much more time it's going to take. Because it's unpleasant, at best. I mean, I was all numbed up for it (so numbed that my right EYE was feeling numb - the tooth being crowned is on the top right way in the back - which is a real fucking weird feeling), but ugh. I'm sure there are probably other crowns in the future - they want to get out all those old, old silver fillings, and he said this tooth did crack while he was removing it, so we caught it before it happened on its own.

I'm glad I didn't get new glasses this year - that left $950 in my FSA, which I had to supplement to pick up the rest of the cost, because I do not know what my insurance will cover as the dentist is out of network. I know I should find someone in network (and preferably near my apartment instead of in Manhattan), but as mentioned above, I like this guy and I think that is an important factor with any medical practitioner if you can get it.

So I came home and took a 3 hour nap because I didn't sleep much last night due to anxiety over all of this. Oh, and I mailed my ballot for Mamdani. I'm very curious to see if his lead in the polls translates to winning the election or if all the people who are scared because he's Muslim will turn out for Cuomo (or Sliwa, I guess, but I cannot take him seriously as a candidate). We have tended to pick terrible mayors recently, so it'll be interesting to see how this all turns out.

And I guess I mentioned reading up there, so yes, I am in the middle of a reread of Blue Lily, Lily Blue, which I am enjoying! ♥BLUE♥ remains my favorite.

*

https://bsky.app/profile/luketurner.bsky.social/post/3m35pa3ywek2h



[Image description: Bluesky post by Luke Turner reading "here is a pleasingly anti-fascist animal painted on the Hurricane of gay RAF pilot Ian Gleed", above a picture of Gleed in the cockpit of his plane pointing to the image on its side of a cartoon cat swatting at and destroying a swastika.]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Gleed (he may have been the fastest RAF pilot to ever make ace, in two days; he was only 26 when he was killed)

Further research by robynbender established that he actually had said antifascist cat painted on all his planes:

http://www.hatfield-herts.co.uk/aviation/gleed.html

The AWS outage is affecting DW notifications - some are delayed, some may be lost.

I only noticed I wasn't getting emails about my own comments after I'd already posted a bunch, so I hope they'll get delivered eventually! In the meantime it's probably useful to manually check back for new comments/replies.

(None of the websites and services I used today were noticeably affected otherwise, luckily. I hope everything has come back for everyone else.)

DW is seeing some issues due to today's Amazon outage. For right now it looks like the site is loading, but it may be slow. Some of our processes like notifications and journal search don't appear to be running and can't be started due to rate limiting or capacity issues. DW could go down later if Amazon isn't able to improve things soon, but our services should return to normal when Amazon has cleared up the outage.

Edit: all services are running as of 16:12 CDT, but there is definitely still a backlog of notifications to get through.

Edit 2: and at 18:20 CDT everything's been running normally for about the last hour.

Except very occasionally if I can locate a spot that currently has reception.

So while that's going on, replies to anything may be delayed, but I'm reading when I can and distractions are still very much appreciated.

ETA: may now be fixed, I am deep in spoon debt and would like to be allowed to falldowngoboomnow.

I made some chicken thighs in the slow cooker today with hoisin sauce, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, garlic, and some tomato paste. The chicken shredded nicely, but mostly what I tasted was salt - it was low sodium soy sauce too, so I'm not sure why. Maybe the balsamic? But that was only 2 tsps. Kind of a disappointment, though now at least I have some room in my freezer for other things. *hands*

Finished my reread of The Dream Thieves and now it's onto Blue Lily, Lily Blue. Still enjoying myself. I guess at some point I'll read something new to me again, but not just yet. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In other news, man, the Giants looked good for 3 whole quarters before completely unravelling and losing. the fact that they led for so long, and even came back to retake the lead once they fell behind, and still lost just makes it worse. At least the Rangers finally won last night.

*

Dear Yulewriter,

thank you so much for writing a story for me!

I've requested and received all of these fandoms before - some for many, many years - and I love them all. Two of them are related to my current main fandom (Guardian) through the main actors, so I might mention them more on DW, but please don't think that means I want my other requests any less! Regardless of what we matched on, rest assured that you really can't go wrong here. Just the existence of new fic for any of these fandoms and characters will make me incredibly happy.

My AO3 account is Trobadora, and it's set to welcome treats.

Everything important is in the requests themselves, but if you'd like even more info, general likes etc., here you go:

General Preferences

( Likes & Dislikes/DNWs )

Fandoms and characters

Jump directly to:

• 绅探 | Detective L (TV): Luo Fei & Huo Wensi
• L'Oréal "Time Engraver" Commercials: The Time Engraver, Worldbuilding
• Nantucket trilogy - S.M. Stirling: Kashtiliash & Raupasha
• Ring of Swords - Eleanor Arnason: Ettin Gwarha & Sanders Nicholas
• Starfire series - Various Authors: Zhaarnak'diaano | Zhaarnak'telmasa & Raymond Prescott
• 长公主在上 | Eldest Princess On Top: Li Yunzhen & Gu Xuanqing
• 1632 series - Various Authors: John Chandler Simpson

( 绅探 | Detective L (TV): Luo Fei & Huo Wensi )

( L'Oréal 'Time Engraver' Commercials: The Time Engraver, Worldbuilding )

( Nantucket trilogy - S.M. Stirling: Kashtiliash & Raupasha )

( Ring of Swords - Eleanor Arnason: Ettin Gwarha & Sanders Nicholas )

( Starfire series - Various Authors: Zhaarnak'diaano | Zhaarnak'telmasa & Raymond Prescott )

( 长公主在上 | Eldest Princess On Top: Li Yunzhen & Gu Xuanqing )

( 1632 series - Various Authors: John Chandler Simpson )

Ahem. Lengthy as always. But I hope you'll find something inspiring in here, and most of all, that you'll have fun writing! :)

I am behind on a lot of things, including reading and posting here. Have some music in lieu of a more substantial post that I probably won't get around to writing:

( TWS, DAY6 )

Title: Until We Go Down
Fandom: 유령 | Phantom (2023)
Music: Until We Go Down by Ruelle
Summary: 'I need that fire just to know that I'm awake'
Notes: Premiered at Virtual confabcon 2025!
Warnings: quick cuts and flashing lights, blood, violence, lots of smoking

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