kingstoken | Reading

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Thank you very much to all the participants & voters.
The votes tally if needed is in the comments of the voting post.

Challenge 30 Just the Caps 3
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luminousdaze

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magicrubbish

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magicrubbish

4th Place
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tinny

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momentomoris

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picnicnic

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magicrubbish

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flareonfury

Current Mood: impressed
Current Location: 🌎
Current Music: Don't Answer Me (2024 Remaster) · The Alan Parsons Project

malinaldarose

It is 25° this morning. There is ice on everything because of yesterday's sleet/freezing rain. It's supposed to get up to 32° and be cloudy and dry today, which will be nice...nicer, anyway, than yesterday.

When I went out in the morning, it was dry, but the sky was...leaden, to borrow a novel term. (Nobody ever calls the sky "leaden" in real life.) After I got my purchases stashed away, I came back to my desk for a while. I had an email from Book Outlet that they were having a sale, and one of the books on sale was one that I had been planning to pick up for months at B&N (which we still haven't made it to, and probably, at this point, won't). Let's see, $8.00 online or $20.00 in the store...which is the better deal.... Yeah, so I spent forty-five minutes or so putting together a book order and bought as many books as I would have on a trip to B&N, but for half the price, so yay. And it means I'll have a package in the mail in a few days.

Then I hopped onto the Kohl's site because I had Kohl's Cash. I filled a cart with clearance items, including a birthday present for Dad (whose birthday is about a month off) and a clear plastic tube for storing wrapping paper. I added pumpkins that I had been eyeing at Halloween, and Christmas decorations, and candle holders, and chocolates (only to find that they don't ship the chocolates). And then I emptied the cart out because I only had $20 in Kohl's Cash and didn't really need all of that stuff. In the end, I bought the gift for Dad and the wrapping paper tube, which together came to $19.49, so all I had to pay for them was the shipping, and I still have 51 cents in Kohl's Cash. Which amuses me greatly.

And then...it was naptime. Were there cats involved? Yes.

I was contemplating going to the new bookstore, yesterday, but then the weather started, and when I saw the ice glazing the windows, I decided that my couch was a nice place to be. I spent the rest of the day (except when making meals and cleaning up after) under a blankie and one or more cats reading. I have made serious headway into the fourth Malloreon book (Sorceress of Darshiva). If I did nothing else for the rest of my vacation, I would finish the series. Unfortunately, I do need to do some things. My house is a pit, and it definitely needs some cleaning and organizing. Deciding where to start is going to be a problem, though. Maybe I'll start with the back room. That really just needs a bit of tidying and to have the boxes that I saved for possible shipping to Auntie and Nuncle collapsed and moved to the recycling bin. Though...not until the ice in the driveway melts.

I am very glad I went out yesterday for groceries so that I don't have to do it this morning.

I have email from Mom this morning saying that they found another gift for me under the tree and that they will either deliver it or I can come get it. Probably I should go get it, but they also go right past my street when they go to the shop, so....

Today, I am going to start with a list of everything I hope to accomplish during my vacation. Some of it is simple enough, like reorganizing my DVD storage binders to include the disks that I have bought since the last time I did that (which was probably last December, now that I think on it). I am debating separating movies out into categories, instead of organizing alphabetically by title, but I still think alphabetical is the way to go, even though it means massively reorganizing sometimes. I did separate out the superhero movies, though; they have their own binder now.

Some of my projects are a little larger, like clean out the separate room in the basement where all of the To Keep stuff got piled, and where the workbench is, because I still want to teach myself book binding and the workbench is a better option than the dining room table or my crafting desk upstairs in Spare Oom. Which is also a project, because Spare Oom and my papercrafting supplies is a separate disaster, and could possibly take me all week on its own to fix.

My office, too, needs work. It's terribly cluttered in here.

The library is another days-long project, because I still have boxes of Grama's paperwork piled in there, almost four years after her death, and that closet also needs major cleaning.

So, yeah. Now that I've had a day off, it's time to get busy. Unfortunately.

I would really prefer to just spend my vacation reading and writing and crafting.

Current Mood: blah

mific posting in

fancake

Fandom: Game Changers book series, Heated Rivalry
Characters/Pairings: OFCs, Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov, Scott Hunter/Kip Grady, Hayden Pike, Troy Barrett, mentions of many HR characters
Rating: Teen
Length: 6937
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply. Some mentions of homophobia and slurs.
Creator Links: corsi on AO3
Themes: Outsider POV, Unconventional format & style, Epistolary, Worldbuilding, Fans and fandom

Summary:
yara

troycabaret

tried to get oomf into hockey and now she's obsessed with FUCKING HOLLANOV? THEY'RE 50 YEARS OLD

Or: Ten years, as seen through fandom.

Reccer's Notes: This is courtesy of a rec in

cathexys' journal. It's another fic told through snippets from invented social media posts across about ten years, following the development, within the universe of Heated Rivalry, of hockey rpf fandom, mainly focusing on Hollanov (Ilya/Shane). It's extraordinarily well done, and although the story of Shane and Ilya's decade-long love affair is the core thread, the real tale is of the rpf fandom, specifically a few devoted fans. The poignancy and brilliance of this fic is the portraits it paints of fanwriters and young fans, immersed in the fandom while they grow and develop, moving through their own life stages and dramas while posting about the hockey players they love, especially Hollanov. And in the end, of course, the Hollanov truthers are resoundingly vindicated. The formatting makes it clear that we're seeing posts on tumblr, livejournal, AO3, Reddit, Twitter, etc., with different types of fandom on each platform. Hilarious and touching, this is a wonderful read, and the details are meticulous and very funny.
PS: It may help to know in advance (as these may be hockey rpf terms with which I was unfamiliar) that 2481 is code for Hollander/Rozanov (their jersey numbers), and 2435 is Hollander/Pike. MHL is the Major Hockey League, HR's version of the NHL. Some details in the fic will probably only make sense if you've read the books.
PPS: Also, there's a fictional recs list by "ice knives" partway through, and I want to read ALL OF THEM!

Fanwork Links: Love Takes Miles (read it in creator's style if you can, for the formatting)

dine

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penaltywaltz posting in

wipbigbang

Due to Mod Ragna not only being in a car accident a week ago but her laptop freezing as well, emergency posting will be extended to January 8th, 2026.

mxcatmoon

This video is amazing and needs to be seen.

65,000 people or so, all singing Bohemian Rhapsody in its entirety.

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: impressed

mulhollands posting in

iconthat

https://i.imgur.com/zzqnh7x.png

Next picture: A Room With A View (1985)

sixbeforelunch

For anyone who read Mansfield Park and wished that poor Fanny had been given a third option.

Our Groves Were Planted to Console (17711 words) by ChronicBookworm
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Mansfield Park - Jane Austen, AUSTEN Jane - Works
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Fanny Price/Original Male Character
Characters: Fanny Price, Original Characters, Mrs. Norris (Mansfield Park), Edmund Bertram, Sir Thomas Bertram
Additional Tags: Courtship, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Family, Family Dynamics, Slow Burn, Strangers to Friends to Lovers
Summary:

Dr Grant receives a prebendary at Westminster before Mr Crawford can propose to Fanny. Fanny likes the new occupant of Mansfield Parsonage much better than the previous ones.

corvidology

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delphi

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innitmarvelous_og posting in

iconthat

Link: https://i.imgur.com/YrnChdO.jpg

Next - Iron Man (2008)

candyheartsex

Nominations will remain open until 11:59 PM EST on December 27. Here's a countdown clock.

Questions

1. The following nominations were submitted under Assassination Classroom but were all disambiguated with the names of other fandoms. I’ve rejected them for now, but I can add them back if the nominator(s) let me know if they wanted Assassination Classroom relationships or the following relationships in the fandoms in the disambiguation:

Albedo/Dilu (Genshin Impact)
Albedo/Kaeya (Genshin Impact)
Gallagher/Sunday/Misha (Honkai: Star Rail)
Jiaoqiu/Jing Yuan (Honkai: Star Rail)

2. Li Family Gen (Perfect Match): Nominator(s), did you mean to nominate a gen relationship between members of the Li family? If so, would you accept Li Family Member & Li Family Member(s)?

3. Peggy Carter/Angie Martinelli and Peggy Carter/Dottie Underwood have been nominated and approved under Marvel Cinematic Universe. Nominator(s), these ships could also go under Agent Carter (TV). Do you want to leave them in MCU or move them to Agent Carter (TV)?

4. I have nominations for both Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X Series. Nominator(s), is it fine to combine these under Final Fantasy X Series, or do the two tags need to remain separate?

5. I have DCU nominations for:

Barry Allen/Leonard Snart
Clark Kent/Lex Luthor
Lena Luthor/Kara Zor-El
Leonard Snart & Lisa Snart
Mick Rory & Leonard Snart & Lisa Snart
Mick Rory/Caitlin Snow
Sara Lance & Leonard Snart

Nominator(s), could you please clarify which of these should be in DC’s Arrowverse, which should be in DC Extended Universe, which should be in DC Comics, Crossover Fandom, etc.? These are usually approved under those subfandoms.

Notes

Evita (Rent) & Allison (Rent) —> approved as Evita & Allison Grey (Rent). Let me know here if this is another Allison.

Riri Williams & Michelle Jones —> approved under Marvel Cinematic Universe as a crossover ship between two MCU properties.

Amilyn Holdo (SWST/Mon Mothma (SWOT) —> approved under Star Wars - All Media Types as a crossover ship between two SW properties.

Anthony DiNozzo/Spencer Reid —> approved as Anthony DiNozzo (NCIS)/Spencer Reid (Criminal Minds). (Crossover nominations must contain the fandoms for the characters in the disambiguations.)

Anthony DiNozzo/Ian Edgerton —> approved as Anthony DiNozzo (NCIS)/Ian Edgerton (Numb3rs). (Crossover nominations must contain the fandoms for the characters in the disambiguations.)

Danny Mahealani/Sebastian Smythe —> approved as Danny Mahealani (Teen Wolf)/Sebastian Smythe (Glee). (Crossover nominations must contain the fandoms for the characters in the disambiguations.)

Aqua | Azura/Lucina (FEA) and My Unit | Kamui | Corrin/My Unit | Robin (FEA) moved to Crossover Fandom, with Aqua | Azura and Corrin tagged as FE: Fates.

The Agent | Hero of Daggerfall/Uriel Septim VII (Oblivion) —> moved to Crossover Fandom, with The Agent | Hero of Daggerfalll tagged as appearing in Daggerfall.

dizzojay

Well, that was Christmas!

As usual, the highlight of our Christmas break has been Windlesham Pram Race which takes place on Boxing Day (26th December) every year, and it's a day Mr D and I both look forward to.

Windlesham is our neighbouring village and so walking down to the race route and back is about a 3 mile round trip, a nice way of working off a few of calories we ate on Christmas day. Unfortunately, I think we'd need to walk to Mongolia and back to work them all off!

The race passes four of Windlesham's five pubs, and teams and spectators are encouraged to stop off and support each establishment, so it's a 'race' in name only, but the main purpose of the event is to raise money for local charities which include upkeep of Windlesham's open spaces such as the recreation ground and field of Remembrance, wildlife rescue and riding for the disabled. There are three winners at the end of the race - the fastest team, the best costumes and the best engineered 'pram'.

Each 'pram' doesn't actually have to be a pram, it can be any kind of wheeled vehicle, but the main rule is that it must only be propelled by being pulled or pushed. It can't have any kind of self propulsion such as a motor or battery.

And that's where the fun starts... there is no end to the imagination of some folks. This year we had cheerleaders, fire engines. lumberjacks, a giant darboard together with giant darts, multiple Jack Sparrows complete with his jar of dirt, and more inflatable men than you could shake a stick at!

And that was just for starters...

( Image Heavy post... )

lebateleur

I hope everyone who celebrates [...] at this time of year has had a lovely [...] and that all others are having a lovely end to the year.

It has been a crazy *coughmumble* number of weeks since I've managed a post. Giftsmas yesterday was lovely: I have new board games! Books! Fountain pen inks! And (joy of joys) a ceramic burr grinder from the GC, who also seemed pretty happy with the things I got for him. These included two Adrian Tchaikovsky novels--signed!--which he had no idea he was getting. (This took some work--and a slight chance of missing an international flight--and the payoff was more than worth it.)

We decamped mid-afternoon for Geek BBQer DM's house, where we spent the next six hours going gluttonous on Virginia ham, salmon, winter veggie dishes, cheeses, brandied fruit, panettone, several bottles of very good wine, and more baked goods than is advisable with a dozen other Geek BBQers and adjacent family and friends. It was an excellent time and still going strong when we reluctantly excused ourselves and went home, as the GC's holiday leave was cancelled second-to-last minute this year for Reasons and

I spentGiftsmas Eve morning baking, with a break to make stuffed onions for lunch. The afternoon was filled with more baking, and then dinner: Balsamic pork roast, green bean casserole, homemade stuffing, and cranberry relish. We wrapped up in time to make it to Geek BBQ to celebrate with the manager, who comped us some very, very pours (Ardbeg Hypernova, Jefferson's Reserve, and Masculine Charms Of A Hairy Highlander) and half a pound of pulled pork. And we squeezed in annual watches of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and The Fellowship of the Ring.

Tuesday saw the GC working and me baking until dinner, during which we watched Community's Comparative Religion and then headed to Geek BBQ, where we ironed out the final details for Giftsmas dinner and compared notes on the week's EO shenanigans. On Monday, we wrapped up meal planning and seasonal shopping for gifts and the rest of the week, and then I headed to that evening's Monday session. Which I love playing at, but for someone who is asleep by 7:30 more nights than not, the 8:15 start time is...rough.

Sunday was, of course, the Solstice. I'd already finished this year's Solstice read (Howl's Moving Castle) so that was taken care of early. Otherwise, we got the greenery up and I spent seven hours on the annual kitchen clean, cleaning, reorganizing, and inventorying everything in the fridge, freezer, cupboards, and shelves ahead of concentrated holiday baking. After that, we had our final D&D Homebrew 2 Campaign session of the year and it was a banger. Sooooo much plot and character development, all of it unscripted, all of it excellent. There was zero combat, I did one dice roll the entire five-hour session (there were probably fewer than five dice rolls from all the players combined) and it did not feel like anything was lacking.) This is just a phenomenal group with a phenomenal DM and I am so happy to be playing with them.

Last week's Monday Session was rescheduled to Saturday afternoon, which: A+ Would Reschedule Again. I am just so much sharper as a player when I'm *cough* awake.

Last week's Geek BBQ was our annual Whiskey White Elephant. Fully a third of the gifts this year were Scotch whiskies (up from one during the inaugural), which was great news for me. We came away with a very good (although not the best) one, with two snifters into the bargain--a nice bonus, given that we'd previously sacrificed all of ours to various PPVs we've hosted over the year. As another bonus, the two other best bottles were both claimed by good friends RI and HA, meaning we basically own all of them in common now. 😝 Our contribution was also well-received by its final recipient and the other folks who tried it, so that was nice too.

In other miscellany, we watched The American Revolution, which had more of a military (vice political/cultural) focus than I'd expected, but still did a very good job of highlighting where all the vaunted rhetoric fell very, very short in practice. We also made progress on our Geek BBQ group watches of Vinland Saga and Evangelion: New Theatrical Edition, which has been a fascinating experience given that we're about equally divided between people who remember (with varying degrees of fondness and frustration) the original Eva(s) and people who are coming to the universe for the very first time.

これで以上です。

Current Music: mediaeval babes - mary fre

pensnest

Magnificent Christmas Dinner prepared by my Bun and her man, possibly with additional assistance from her out-laws. We had roast pork, full sized pigs in blankets, stuffing balls, individual Yorkshire puds, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, roast carrots, cauliflower and broccoli cheese, cabbage cooked with pancetta, apple sauce, and gravy. Deeeelicious. And followed by a pannettoni bread and butter pudding with cream.

*

I have been perusing Yuletide stories today, and rejoicing once again in the quality of the writing! I tend to old-fashioned fandoms, so perhaps that helps—do the Young People These Days even read, say, Swallows and Amazons?—but it is certainly satisfying.

Some recs, in no particular order.

The Princess Murdered Princess Bride/Colombo

Even though I haven't seen Colombo in *years* and have held no particular affection for the show, I started smiling in the paragraph that introduces Colombo, which is completely perfect. Absolutely delightful. And Humperdinck is also spot-on in his entirely selfish machinations and general contempt for the rest of the world. Only problem with this one is, I want more!

A Gentlewoman's Debt A Civil Contract, Heyer
A charming story! Jenny Lynton is one of my favourite heroines, and this one gives a glimpse of her married life and a new friend she makes by chance.

The Cruelty of Man"- Sweeney Todd
Ooh. Poor Lucy. This is an entirely believable characterisation. She's a gentle soul. I can almost imagine the song she might have sung, quietly, on her own with the baby. And the Judge is sooooooo sinister. Very well done. Mrs Lovett also perfectly pragmatic.

I Will Be True Austen
Whenever I read Sense and Sensibility I find myself hoping that this time, Elinor will get to marry Colonel Brandon. Somehow, it never happens. And in this story, she comes to her senses, deliberately does not encourage Edward, and learns to love Brandon instead, while he at the same time recognises that his feelings for Marianne were based on a false starting point. It's a delightful read.

Dick and Dorothea's Week in London World of Swallows and Amazons
This is lovely! I am so charmed! The D's, sharing the bad raincoat. Susan, turning into a woman and learning more about cooking. And the image of the D's yelling "Titty!" in a crowded railway station is somewhat hilarious. This is very much like a little slice of the life the children led in between adventures.

A Succession of Remarkable Changes The Princess Bride
Inigo needs training if he is to become a proper Dread Pirate Roberts. This left me chuckling with glee. Dread, but with panache! It is entirely correct and wonderful, and I hope Inigo enjoys himself enormously as Dread Pirate Roberts. Just delightful!

Once, Long Ago - a Persuasion fic,
A very good alternate timeline, although it left me quite teary. So much regret for years of happiness missed! It's very well characterised, from the main couple down to the little appearances of Sir Walter, Mary, and Lady Russell. If you need a bit of melancholy after the joys of Christmas, read this one.

spikedluv

I had a chiropractic appointment Wednesday morning. I hit Price Chopper while I was downtown and CVS for mom. I returned a book to the library in the afternoon and stopped at Stewart’s for gas and milk.

I visited mom, did two loads of laundry, hand-washed dishes, went for a walk with Pip and the dogs, cut up chicken for the dogs' meals, scooped kitty litter, and showered. I stirred up a cabbage salad for Christmas dinner. We had leftover chicken for supper.

I watched some HGTV programs. Secrets of the Zoo was my evening background tv.

Temps started out at 35.4(F) and just kept going down.

I wasn't online at all today, but I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas (or a fabulous Thursday)! We had breakfast at mom’s and dinner at Pip’s sister’s house.

Since the time was moved back, and we’re already too full from breakfast to enjoy dinner (which is at 1pm), we decided to eat breakfast at home and consider the meal at mom’s a ‘mid-morning snack’. In the end, I was the only one to go because Pip wasn’t feeling well and we both agreed that he should not be around mom. I wore a mask while I was there to be on the safe side.

I did a load of laundry, hand-washed dishes, ran a load in the dishwasher, cut up chicken for the dogs' meals, and scooped kitty litter.

I read more in Boyfriend Material. Secrets of the Zoo was once again my evening background tv.

I know I checked the temperature when I got up, but I can’t recall what it was, and didn’t really pay attention to it during the day. It was mid-30s most of the day with some wind. There was some sun in the afternoon, which was a nice surprise. It started going down pretty substantially after 4pm, which isn’t a surprise because we’re supposed to have a low of 6 overnight. o_O And there's snow in the forecast. *sad face*

Mom Update:

Mom was doing well both Wednesday and Thursday. She sounded stronger and looked better. Also, she was able to get up and around AND dressed, so that’s a good sign. I mentioned to someone else that it seems like she’s been more determined to feel better since we got the bad news.

One thing the doctor did tell her is that the effects from the radiation should last about 6 weeks, so we’re 4 weeks in. That might also have given her a lift to know it's almost over.

dolorosa_12

I finished up work at midday on 24th December, caught the train home, and walked straight up the hill to meet Matthias for food truck lunch and drinks in our favourite cafe/bar. He had spent the morning trundling around town collecting all the various bits and pieces of food that we'd preordered, and after we returned to the house, I set about enacting my plans for the twelve ensuing days of holiday: cooking, eating, reading, TV, and nothing more strenuous than swimming, yoga, and long walks. So far, everything's gone wonderfully: cold seafood dinner on Christmas Eve, a fantastic roast dinner for Christmas Day (we'll be eating the leftovers for at least the next four days), watching our way through the last season of Stranger Things in the living room lit only by the wood-burning stove, candlelight, and our various sets of string lights, reading nothing more demanding than Rumer Godden children's Christmas books, romance novels, Christmas romance novels, etc. Today we blew the cobwebs away with a 2.5-hour walk through the fens. The air was cold, the sky was clear blue, and the river water was still, and abundant with water birds, and everyone we met seemed relaxed and happy. We finished up with coffee in the market square.

Yuletide has been wonderful so far (initial terrifying moments when the mods somehow manage to open the collection with all author names revealed notwithstanding). I've been working my way backwards up through the alphabet — I do this as I feel most people read in descending alphabetical order and have run out of steam by the end, and I want to ensure authors who wrote for fandoms in the last quarter of the alphabet get love for their work too — at a leisurely pace, being more selective than in previous years in terms of what I choose to read, and I'm having a great time so far. My two fics have been well received by both their intended recipients, and other readers, which is always my main aspiration.

And then there's my own wonderful gift! I have been asking persistently for this fandom, and these two characters for the past eleven years — every single year in which I've participated in Yuletide, plus in several other exchanges as well — and no one ever wrote them, so when I saw what my gift involved, I almost danced around the room with happiness. And the fic itself is the fic of my dreams for these characters, and this fandom. What I always want from fanworks is more of the stuff that drew me to the specific characters in canon, and my author most certainly delivered in this regard: pitch perfect character voices, with a well-crafted little fic that reminded me all over again of all the specific things I love about these two characters individually, and together. I'm so happy!

Thrive (1030 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Pagan Chronicles - Catherine Jinks
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Isidore Orbus & Babylonne Kidrouk
Characters: Isidore Orbus, Babylonne Kidrouk
Additional Tags: Found Family, Bologna, Healing, House Hunting
Summary:

Isidore and Bayblonne settle in Bologna.

I will share it again once authors are revealed, along with other recs from the collection. I hope everyone else who's participating in Yuletide has had an equally good time with this year's exchange.

( Another December talking meme response )

I'll finish up this post with a reminder that

fandomtrees is going to open for fills soon. It's easy to browse the tags to see what people have requested. If anyone is interested, my tree is here.