eruthros

Title: Talk To Me
Creator:

AnonymousDandelion
Rating: General
Word Count/Length/Size: 500 words
Creator's Summary:
Two years gone, with no word and no warning, while the neighbors gossiped and the police gave up hope and her mother tossed and turned each night. And then to simply turn back up on the doorstep, like nothing ever happened—

No, that’s not true. Barbara is certainly acting like something happened. Her eyes are different and the way she carries herself is different, in some indefinable way that a mother’s glance can’t miss.
Characters/Pairings: Barbara Wright, Joan Wright
Warnings/Notes: None

Reasons for reccing: This is a nice, realistic reunion between Barbara and her mother, who knows her well enough to disbelieve the rumours.

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/73128591

spikedluv

Another day I did not go downtown at all. I had scheduled brunch with a friend of mine (the previous librarian) because this is another day I don’t have to take mom to her treatment, and I decided that I didn’t need to rush downtown and back, since we’re going in a different direction for brunch. Grocery shopping can wait until tomorrow.

We went to a restaurant I had never been to before (didn’t even know it existed!); she got a fancy breakfast panini and I got a lunch panini (as they were apparently serving both at this time?), the chicken caprese. It was delicious. And we had a lovely visit. I used to stay and visit with her when I’d drop by the library, but since she retired I rarely see her. (Though we are two of a very few left-leaning folk in this area, so we like and share each other’s facebook posts often. *g*)

Additionally, I did two loads of laundry, hand-washed dishes, ran a load in the dishwasher, went for several walks with Pip and the dogs, hard boiled eggs and made egg salad, baked chicken for the dogs’ meals, cut up chicken for the dogs' meals, and scooped kitty litter. I also emptied some old containers of food out of the upstairs refrigerator freezer (including a package of taco meat dated 2018 o_O) and found some leftover pork tenderloin (that is not THAT old *g*) that I served Pip for supper.

I finished typing in my Top Gun notes and finally started typing in my fic! I got the entirety of what I had handwritten typed in! ~4,920 words!!! I now just have one more ‘scene’ (it’s really more than one scene, but it’s a section from one person’s pov) to write. I’m pretty excited about being so close to the end. (I didn’t even take a nap today because I wanted to get as much as possible typed in!)

Temps started out at 33.8(F) and reached 54.5. There was very little sun and a good breeze, but if there had been more sun and less breeze it would’ve been really nice out. Then of course it got overcast and rained a bit in the late afternoon.

Mom Update:

I talked to mom and she sounded good. She said everything went well with her appointment and she didn’t have any issues with her food. Since she isn’t able to do much, that was about it.

selenak posting in

rheinsberg

Vienna was unseen by our antihero, but home to his arch nemesis, and to this day very much imprinted by her and her family. Have the pictorial result of three days following their footsteps:

( Hofburg: Buildings, Books and Instruments )

While we're talking the generation of MT's Dad, the big hero of the era was Eugene of Savoy, famous general , thorn in Louis XIV's side and "wise advisor to three Emperors" as the plaque beneath his statue calls him, whose main residence, the Belvedere, was later sold by his niece and heir to MT. The Belvedere is separated in the Lower and Upper Belvedere. Both look gorgeous, but courtesy of a fire the Upper Belvedere inside is mostly modern and used as an art museum, though each room shows a print of how it looked in Eugene's day and to which purpose he used it. Some, a very few, survive in their original setting or could be restored. The Upper Belvedere is also where the Second Austrian Republic was declared after WW2.

( Belvedere )

Many a dead Habsburg ended up in the famous Capuchin Crypt, the Kapuzinergruft (or most of their bodies anyway; the Habsburgs famously had their hearts and inwards buried in different churches from the rest of the bodies). We're talking 400 years of dead Habsburgs, with the latest entries being Otto of Habsburg (Member of the European Parliament), I believe, and starting in 1618 with the Empress Anna.

( Capuchin Crypt: Dead Habsburgs and great tombs )

The most famous church in Vienna, the Stefansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral) was where Joseph and Isabella got married, and usually when they show you a picture of the Stephansdom in the 18th century from inside, it's the depiction of that wedding. This it how the church looks today:

( Stefansdom and views from same )

Before going to the Vienna outskirts (today - back then it was really separate from the city) for Schönbrunn, a trip to the Maria Theresia Square, where she's depicted with her most important generals (like Traun) and advisors (like Kaunitz), but also Dr. Van Swieten, he who promoted anti smallpox inocculation.

( MT and family as statues )

Now, onto Schönbrunn. Which like Versailles started out as hunting lodge. It was given to MT as a summer residence by her father and she then turned into her favourite residence and into a major palace.

( Schönbrunn Splendour )

ride_4ever

I've got a "milestone" birthday coming up and I bought myself a birthday gift of something I've wanted for a long time: the complete Red Green DVD collection -- yep, all 300 episodes! And

amedia made a whole bunch of Red Green icons for me (one of which you see here).

A big TYK to

amedia for the timely icons!

Current Mood: pleased
Current Location: near the lake they call Michigan

m_findlow posting in

drabble_zone

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mific

Oh god I had to get a new iPhone as my old one was a stegosaurus and apps were starting to give me the finger. But now I have to set the new one up and I hates it, I hates it!

So far it won't even talk to my old dino-phone, or to my iPad which is barely more advanced, and it won't download everything from iCloud as my wifi is apparently using an old, insecure system, wpa2. So I have to upgrade that first and then will my iPad wifi and laptop wifi still work?? *grinds teeth*.

But in 20 minutes we go into a planned power cut so the local lines company can fix some urgent thingy, the second such in 3 days, which means I can postpone all this shit to another day.

Writing this to the sound of fireworks going off as Wednesday was Guy Fawkes night and with it now the weekend, lots of people saved their fireworks and we've had them exploding the last three days. You can set them off here anytime, but you can only buy them in the lead-up to Guy Fawkes once a year, in NZ law.

So I'm sitting here stumped by futuristic tech while being serenaded by a five centuries old celebration of averted English domestic terrorism.

Time for a nice cup of tea.

sweetsorcery

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selenak

Busy, busy days. Some media consumed in the last weeks were:

The Diplomat, Season 3: I was afraid the same would happen as with The West Wing - which series creator Deborah Cahn had also been involved in - , i.e. the reality I live in would make it impossible for me to watch a show in which the people working for the US administration might be fucked up in varying degrees, but all sincerely dedicated to the common good in terms of their motivation, and by implication the US public would not vote a creature like the Orange Menace into office (twice). (Hence my personal impossibility of a WW rewatch right now.) This turned out not to be the case. By and large, I enjoyed the season, though its global dangers not withstanding, I would still rather live in that reality (where the US President might ( do spoilery things ), but would not want to change the US into a mixture of ultimate corruption and theocratic autocracy, and the British PM is still a Boris Johnson expo with the thinnest of egos, but at least Nigel Farage doesn't exist. (BTW: it's not clear where The Diplomat's timeline departs from ours; resident Rayburn was clearly a Joe Biden avatar when the show started and there is some occasional talk about restoring the US image abroad, but they never say from what, and whether the Orange Menace's first assault on democracy happened or whether something else did.) Seaosn 3 deals with the fallout from season 2's cliffhanger ending, throws in some new twists (and characters), andwhile wrapping up its seasonal storyline again throws in a tag scene with a big new reveal/hook, while playing to its two strengths, i.e. bringing its central character into a series of convoluted political situations in which she has to extricate not just herself but others (including the US and GB), and her screwed up but intense relationship with her husband. ( More spoilery observations to follow. ) In conclusion, I continue to like this entertaining AU. I hope it gets another season, though if it doesn't, this finale despite its last moment reveal would also work as a finale.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps : Which I missed in the cinema but which is now on Disney +. Personal state of knowledge: I saw none of the earlier Fantastic Four movies, to which this one isn't connected anyway; the comicverse characters I encountered a) in an historical AU version via the comics 1602, and b) in the comicverse Civil War storylilne, which means I hardly saw them at their best. (Unforgotten: Reed Richards fanboying Joe McCarthy.) I'm happy to report these latest MCU versions are a delightful bunch, living in a canonical alternate universe (818) in the 1960s, and keeping in trend with both MCU Spiderman and the latest DCU Superman, we're not going through the origin story again but the movie introduces us to the character(s) when they're already superheroiing, albeit not that long. The cast includes Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, Pedro Pasqual as Reed Richards, and Joe Quinn, since Stranger Things a Geek celebrity, as Sue's brother Johnny, with the unknown-to-me Ebon Moss-Bachrach playing Ben Grimm. Something that struck me as very sympathetic is that the movie treats the four as a true ensemble, i.e. Johnny and Ben aren't the sidekicks, and that the central dilemna when it's revealed ( and which is spoilery )

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: Munich

sholio

I was too busy to notice when it happened, but

trickortreatex revealed authors this morning, which means I can 'fess up to my (not at all predictable) ToT offering.

The Preservation Harvest Festival (4989 words) by Sholio
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Murderbot & PreservationAux Survey Team (Murderbot Diaries)
Characters: Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries), Dr. Mensah (Murderbot Diaries), Dr. Ratthi (Murderbot Diaries), Dr. Gurathin (Murderbot Diaries), Amena (Murderbot Diaries)
Additional Tags: Halloween, Holidays, Trick or Treating, Friendship, Bonding, get loved idiot
Summary: Murderbot vs. Halloween.

cornerofmadness

in the pouring rain at night at 65 miles per hour all I can hear is Jack Burton saying I never drive faster than I can see...and it's all in the reflexes.

So I had to give two of the bone tests today and it left me leaving later than I wanted to get to Athens for the writers meet up (i.e. me and MKF) and from there on to Marietta so it's about 80 miles of highway from here to there. Ah well I'm here, alive and well and apparently only a handful of doors down from Eddie Munster and several wrestlers who are all guests at the Marietta Monster Mash. It should be fun (and it starts an hour later than I thought so I should find something to do in the morning. I wouldn't mind going to Jeremiah's but the onstreet parking for that coffee shop sucks it hard)

And the lady I talked to last night did me a favor. I have a mini suite with two couches AND at the con rate of 70$ and she introduced me to the con's showrunner (guess she liked me)

Let's do fannish friday

Starting with my review of Hazbin Hotel's 3rd and 4th episodes

( under here because 98% of you aren't into the fandom and it got long because I got excited )

And I wrote a story for

spikesgirl58's challenge and yes it IS spoilery for Hazbin S2E3

Title: No Matter How Strong, I'm Gonna Take You Down

Summary: Anthony knows it’s either him or his father and he will do what he has to. The aftermath isn’t all he expected

Notes: Major spoilers for S2 Episode 3 and Angel’s backstory. Definitely watch the episode first.

Written for spikesgirl58’s 6 word challenge. The words were Harmony, Abort, Drug, Muddled, Slippery, & Apathetic

Also written for the allbingo prompt of I didn't want power. All I wanted was control. over my life and the lyrical titles bingo challenge for the prompt an angry song. I chose Dinner at Eight by Rufus Wainright

( Story under here or at the above link )

And all the fandom recs will have to wait maybe til tomorrow. It's quite late.

Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: Midsomer Murder

cereta

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brithistorian

“In Polynesia, they used kites to fish, flying baited lines over the water to catch fish — a method that's also still around." (Lindsey Johnson, “A Brief History of Kites,” in Make:, #93, p. 53)

After reading this quote, I had to look into kite fishing more. Not only is it still around, I found someone in Dauphin Island, Alabama (near where I grew up) who's kite fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. It's possible (though I make no guarantees) that if I had been introduced to kite fishing, I would have found fishing more interesting than I did and wouldn't have given up on it.

mrissa

Review copy provided by the publisher.

This is the second half of what is being called a duology, with The Witch Roads as the first half of the story. I would say it's less a duology than a novel in two volumes. The first volume ends on a cliffhanger, and the second picks up basically immediately with no reintroduction to the characters, setting, and plot. So: one story in two volumes, now complete.

There were things I really liked about this and things that left me cold. I feel like the pacing was weird--the chapters are short, but that didn't really obscure how many pages were spent on basically one argument. I also found the ending deeply unsatisfying--the situation of having a character possessing other people was basically glanced at as problematic and then embraced as a happy ending that was entirely too convenient for all involved.

But the return to our protagonist Elen's past home, illuminating it with her adult eyes, was really well done, and I liked the courage and strength shown by the child she encountered there. I love having a fantasy that has an aunt/nephew relationship as one of its emotional cores. This duology simultaneously locates itself centrally in the secondary world fantasy genre of the moment and branches out to do things that I'm not seeing a lot of in other fantasy of this type.

kronette

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silverusagi

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Current Mood: awake

petra

Thanks to

jenab and

senmut!

As of today, with 1325 works:

1. What rating do you write most fics under?

General Audiences - 623; Teen and Up - 274 is the second, which is not even close.

2. What are your top 3 fandoms?
DCU (292)
Star Wars (187)
Cabin Pressure (64) (almost all limericks from Sept 2025)
Honorable Mention: Slings & Arrows (63), which is at least not all five-line poetry

3. What is your top character you write about?
Obi-Wan Kenobi (137)
Bruce Wayne comes in second at 131 but I never did a Kinktober in DCU fandom, and I've done two in Star Wars mostly-Prequels fandom.

4. What are the 3 top pairings?
Obi-Wan Kenobi/Anakin Skywalker (85)
Dick Grayson/Bruce Wayne (43)
Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker (22)
Padmé Amidala/Obi-Wan Kenobi/Anakin Skywalker (21)
Gene Hunt/Sam Tyler (20) (included for variety)

5. What are the top 3 additional tags?
Drabble (474)
Limericks (202)
Poetry (85)
You don't get a non-format one till Identity Porn (22), Psychic Wolves (19), and Oral Sex (18).

Current Mood: archival
Current Music: They should have checked the ashes of the women they burned alive

swan_tower

Nine years and eight months ago, I earned my black belt in shōrin-ryu karate.

Today, I became a second degree black belt.

It was supposed to happen sooner. But right when the head of my dojo began saying that maybe it was time for me to prep for testing, a pandemic started. Which put a dent in my training. And even once classes began again, various factors meant I wasn't able to go regularly. And then 2024 was, in hindsight, a rather abysmal year for my health. And and and, spring of this year rolled around, and I realized I was in danger of it being ten years since my previous test, and dammit, I did not intend to let that milestone pass without me at least trying to take the next step.

There were more than a few hurdles along the way. I've had wrist problems for years that meant I hadn't been doing kobudo (weapons training), but you're expected to do that as part of your test. So starting in August I began a crash course, scraping the rust off the sai kata I was expected to perform -- not too bad; it was one I used to know well -- and, uh, learning from scratch a long and difficult bo kata that I did not know in the slightest. I went so gung-ho on that, in fact, that I managed to give myself a repetitive stress sprain in my right ankle five weeks before the test (bear in mind that sprains take about six weeks to heal . . .). And then, to put the cherry on top of that sundae, I caught my big toe against the mat nine days ago and basically re-activated the hellacious sprain I had in that joint some years previously.

As I put it to several people, by the time I got to the test, I felt like I was being held together by chewing gum. Not even duct tape: that would have been an upgrade.

But these higher-level tests can only be done when our dojo's founder is in town (he moved back to Okinawa a few years ago), and his next visit will likely be for the seminar in April of next year. That would be past the decade mark I was determined to beat. So, come hell or high water, I was going to drag my sorry carcass through the test -- and I did! And, barring a couple of utterly bone-headed errors brought on by nerves (which got knowing nods of "yep, that happens" from other black belts later), I did acceptably well. I faced down literally an international panel of seven sensei -- Shihan being in from Okinawa, and also we have a contingent of Germans from one of our sister dojo here for the fall seminar -- whose collective belt rank totaled well over forty degrees, and I achieved ni-dan status.

You don't get a new belt, of course. It's still the same black belt as before. But there's kind of a joke that a truly experienced black belt becomes a white belt again, because over time the black threads fray and break, revealing the white canvas core underneath, so that a truly high-level sensei's belt can be tattered indeed.

And this afternoon, after I passed my test . . .

. . . I glanced down at my belt . . .

. . . and I found a tiny frayed spot on the corner of one end where the white canvas is peeking through.

I consider it my ni-dan badge. ^_^

(originally posted at Swan Tower: https://is.gd/u7LBNv)

ecto_one_spengler posting in

fan_flashworks

Title: your stupid face
Fandom: Super Mario franchise (if the mods can do so, please tag just as Super Mario or like, Super Mario (series)! There's too many references to stick to one subseries this time :( )
Rating: PG-13
Length: 1377 words
Content notes: Scattershot style references to at the very least the first Mario movie, a few of the Mario RPGs, the first Mario + Rabbids game, Super Mario Odyessy, Paper Mario and the Origami King and the Kaden Mackay song "Your Stupid Face" - the events of the story vaguely follows the rough story of Your Stupid Face. Also. Bowser has a potty mouth, hence the given rating.
Author notes: Ahahahaha..... I wrote up this experimental piece with an actual ship in mind. I've liked the song for a while.
Written for: The prompt Missing for Fan Flashworks.
Summary: A very unlikely relationship starts between the burly Bowser Koopa and his archnemesis, the plumber hero Mario, found between fights, Princess Peach kidnapping schemes and near-catastrophes over many years - making Bowser get very used to the feeling of missing what he believes he can never have.

--

( Read more... )

Current Mood: embarrassed
Current Location: My computer
Current Music: Kitchen Nightmares....

setsuled

Recently, a video of Charlie Kirk speaking about Japan during his visit to Tokyo has been getting a lot of attention from Sanseito and other right-wing Japanese groups.

Watch on YouTube

While I still don't think he should've been shot, I must observe he speaks from a position of profound ignorance when it comes to Japan. He presents a contrast between the U.S. and Japan by saying that the U.S. is primarily a "propositional" country while Japan is not. However, much of the modern Japan that he praises is a product of a series of propositions that have occurred since the Meiji Restoration in 1868, or even since the early 17th century if we're to include a timeline of changes instituted with philosophical rather than immediately practical intent.

Nominally, the "Restoration" was meant to restore absolute authority to the Emperor after the Edo period in which the country's governance was managed by a shogunate and "bafuku", a system in which regional lords maintained partial residency in Edo as a means of centralising policy formation and execution in the realm. But the Restoration is described by historians more accurately as a renovation. The country adopted a Charter Oath which presented a radical proposition for societal reform:

By this oath, we set up as our aim the establishment of the national wealth on a broad basis and the framing of a constitution and laws.

1. Deliberative assemblies shall be widely established and all matters decided by open discussion.
2. All classes, high and low, shall be united in vigorously carrying out the administration of affairs of state.
3. The common people, no less than the civil and military officials, shall all be allowed to pursue their own calling so that there may be no discontent.
4. Evil customs of the past shall be broken off and everything based upon the just laws of Nature.
5. Knowledge shall be sought throughout the world so as to strengthen the foundation of imperial rule.

The last item was assiduously pursued by government officials and scholars who spent extensive time in Europe and America, observing social and government institutions. As a result, the fundamental framework of Japanese society was reordered, including the educational system, in which free public education was established modelled on western examples. It's in this period that the famous "sailor suit" school uniform was adopted in schools.

In some ways, it could be argued that Japan is more propositional than the U.S. as the Charter Oath and institutional reforms were less influenced by the culture's endemic religion than the English colonists were influenced by Puritan heritage and the ideological conflicts of 17th century England.

Of course, Japan's identity is inextricably bound to a culture that has evolved for over a thousand years but the policies pursued during the Meiji Restoration as well as during the occupation of Japan following World War II have shaped the country profoundly and are just as inextricable. Certainly there's tension between the two elements but less so than in other countries that have undergone similarly profound changes such as France or Mexico. One might attribute this to a culture that is extraordinarily suited for adaptation and progress.

Current Mood: groggy
Current Location: Japan
Current Music: "Farewell My Concubine Suite, Part 1" - Zhao Jiping

petra

The rumor that I posted this one just to be able to tag it is False; the things I will do for Jack and Té are numerous.

In which Obi-Wan is a tortoiseshell cat (27 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars - All Media Types
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi/Whomever It May Concern
Characters: Obi-Wan Kenobi
Additional Tags: Limericks, Isekai and Transmigration, Animal Transformation, Obi-Wan Kenobi is a Pussy, Obi-Wan Kenobi has a pussy, Cat Obi-Wan Kenobi
Summary:

Obi-Wan gets isekai'ed into a kitty cat and gets laid.

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eruthros

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Network

Rec [fic]: Talk To Me by AnonymousDandelion

The Day in Spikedluv (Friday, Nov 7)

18th Century Habsburg Vienna: A Pic Spam

Fannish 50 Challenge 2025: Post # 37: Red Green Fandom; C6D Fandom

Torchwood: A world of pain (Challenge 474 - Hurt)

First world fuckery

FIC "In a Passion of Farewell" Parkins/Wilson (Oh Whistle and I'll Come to you My Lad - MRJ) T

The Diplomat S3 and The Fantastic Four: First Steps

The Preservation Harvest Festival [Murderbot fic]

As I'm zig zagging between Ohio and West Virginia

You can take the girl out of grad school...

QOTD: Fishing with kites!

The Nameless Land, by Kate Elliott

(no subject)

Reading catch up

AO3 Meme

The No Longer Littlest Black Belt Takes the Next Step

Missing: Super Mario: Fanfic: your stupid face

Sorry, Charlie

Yet Another Limerick - Star Wars isekai

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October 2025

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