spiralsheep: Sheep wearing an eyepatch (Default)
[personal profile] spiralsheep
thefridayfive posted my questions this week so I suppose I'd better answer them, lol. As these represent some of my pet obsessions, the regulars already know what I'll say. Apologies for the repetitions.

I'm interested in all your answers as usual. )
I've upcycled a few things, often trash or charity shop finds, but usually as art rather than for practical purposes. The largest is a garden sculpture that looks like curling art nouveau plant stems with leaves, that I made out of part of an old metal bed head I hauled out of the community woodland when we were clearing the rubbish dumped there. One of my friends makes flowers out of charity shop glasses and plates. I have a couple of slightly broken antique bottles I'd like the tops ground off to make vases.

Daily Happiness

Aug. 28th, 2025 11:57 pm
torachan: (Default)
[personal profile] torachan
1. Just one more day until my four day weekend!

2. We had a nice dinner at Disneyland tonight. Waited until later to go down there, so it wasn't hot anymore (though it was still pretty muggy) and the traffic wasn't bad.

3. I feel like I'm already making good progress with tasks for this new project at work and the IT team was very happy with my report today. Also it seems there's interpersonal trouble again at one of the stores and I'm super glad it's not my problem anymore.

4. Silly Jasper.

Trees and Flowers

Aug. 28th, 2025 02:09 pm
yourlibrarian: Long Time Ago for Spike and Angel (BUF-LongTime-sfwolfpup)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian posting in [community profile] common_nature


I wish I'd had our car in this photo as a reference point for how large those trees were, At least in the next photo you can see a park building in the bottom left which gives you some idea. It was very impressive to be driving through these roads of giants.

Read more... )

spinning cont'd

Aug. 28th, 2025 01:17 pm
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (Default)
[personal profile] yhlee


Current WIP: a gorgeous merino-silk-angelina blend.

Testing out a Dreaming Robots e-spinner, the Electric Eel Wheel 6.1. It's terrific and very easy to assemble and get running (at least after the learning curve on the Ashford Traveller treadle wheel). I hear the even more budget-friendlier Electric Eel Nano 2. (about $140 USD) 1 is fiddly, but I wonder. My use case for this is plying, which I find ungodly miserable.



Meanwhile, the local fiber animal is "helping" again. Cloud's floof is VERY spinnable so we're just randomly gathering catten floof while brushing her incredibly soft coat (she's mostly undercoat, and it's WILDLY soft).



(Sorry for the messy floor...I'm still under the weather and spinning is soothing/)
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (Default)
[personal profile] yhlee
Pre-launch for Ex Tenebris, a "a gothic space investigation TTRPG" forthcoming from Black Armada.

Beyond the dark emptiness of space, beyond dreaming, lies the Tenebrium. Only you can unearth its mysteries, defeat the twisted horrors that lurk there, and keep humanity from becoming prey.

In Ex Tenebris, you play a ragtag team of investigators, protecting the Republic of Stars from terrifying supernatural threats. You will face sorcerers and cults, dark technology from lost civilisations and the slobbering terrors lurking in the nightmare realm of the Tenebrium.


I will be writing a scenario [Update #2] for this game. :3

:goes back to orchestration homework:
garryowen: made by signe (Default)
[personal profile] garryowen posting in [community profile] fancake
Fandom: Star Trek AOS (Reboot)
Pairings/Characters: Kirk/Spock
Rating: G
Length: 1832 words; 11:27 minutes
Creator Links: [archiveofourown.org profile] reeby10 ; [archiveofourown.org profile] cookiemom6067
Theme: Marriage of convenience

Summary: The Enterprise makes contact with an alien race who will only speak with a couple as representatives. Jim figures it's not a big deal to pretend he and Spock are together, but it turns out they play the role a little too well.

Reccer's Notes: Sliding in with one last rec for this theme. I'd forgotten about this story, but I happened to listen to the podfic this morning. It's a great example of a short marriage of convenience story that relies on what we already know to be a strong friendship between Kirk and Spock. In this story, a diplomatic mission requires Kirk and Spock to pretend to be a couple, but their clear bond (in the general sense, not the Vulcan sense) leads the planet's representatives to offer to hold a marriage ceremony for our favorite Starfleet officers. I like when outsiders are able to see the heart of things and call it like it is. This is such a sweet and gentle fic with a big helping of optimism. I'm sure someone needs that today. The podfic is also clearly and steadily read by cookiemom.

Fanwork Links:
For the Greater Good
Podfic by cookiemom6067

Daily Happiness

Aug. 27th, 2025 10:08 pm
torachan: tavros from homestuck dressed as pupa pan (pupa pan)
[personal profile] torachan
1. I had a meeting at 6pm today, which I stayed at the office for but was then told everyone was just joining from their own desks (only four people in the meeting were there in the building, the others were in Japan) so I could have done it from home, which was annoying as my meeting before that had ended at around 3:30. But I did get a lot of work done on a project in the time between those two meetings, wheras if I'd gone home, I would have just said I was done with work for the day and did non work stuff until the meeting.

2. Gemma's soaking in the sun.

Dear Fic In A Box Author

Aug. 27th, 2025 09:43 pm
beatrice_otter: Me in red--face not shown (Default)
[personal profile] beatrice_otter
I use the same name everywhere so I am [personal profile] beatrice_otter on AO3. Treats are awesome.

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

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

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

General Likes and Dislikes

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.


Fandom For Robots )

Rivers of London )

Goblin Emperor )

DS9 )

Star Wars Legends )

Enola Holmes )

Babylon 5 )

Enterprise )

TNG )

Sense8 )

Me-and-media update

Aug. 28th, 2025 03:32 pm
china_shop: An orange cartoon dog waving, with a blue-green abstract background. (Bingo!)
[personal profile] china_shop
Pandemic life
Colds and so forth. )

Previous poll review
In the Plaguefic poll, 46% of respondents were okay reading about Covid and related subjects, 52% didn't mind mentions, and 28% like it when characters mask sometimes, while 22% said there are aspects of the pandemic they avoid, and 22% prefer their reading matter to avoid the subject entirely.

In ticky-boxes, hugs won with 74%, followed by wallabies at a disco with 48%, and battery acid and protest signs with 36%. Thank you for your votes! <3

Reading
Audio: Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer, read by Candida Gubbins. This continues to be fascinating and put present times into dryly alarming perspective, in a "thus has it ever been" kind of way. Most of the names and all the dates are in one ear and out the other, but Palmer spins an excellent yarn and kindly gives key figures nicknames (Battle Pope!). I'm up to Lucrezia Borgia, ie, about halfway.

Library book: A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall. I'm about halfway through this, too. Everything I know about Regency is from non-contemporaneous novels (Heyer), but still. These characters are clearly modern LARPers, but the central conflict is good.

Kdramas/Cdramas
I'm restricting my Nothing But Love rewatch to the exercise machine, to make it last.

Other TV
We finished Bookish. I came around to it in the end; the flashback to Book's long-lost love was heartrending. Looking forward to season 2.

Nothing else. It turns out I don't watch much TV on my own.

Guardian/Fandom
I posted a poll to [community profile] fan_writers about whether sharing is part of your creative process, and there's some great discussion there.

Upcoming in Guardian fandom: [community profile] guardian_wishlist sign-ups open tomorrow. And the Slo-mo Drama Rewatch starts on [community profile] sid_guardian next week. \o/

Audio entertainment
Writing Excuses. Letters from an American. More Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones (which aside from being really fun, highlighted this line from Archer's Goon: Mum always said that you could tell what people were like by their houses. So naturally now I keep thinking about Guardian through that lens and wondering what everyone's living spaces look like). I tried a local politics podcast (RNZ, equivalent of NPR), but apparently our political commentary has been reduced to economics, blah.

Online life
  • I need to stop making discussion posts when my arms aren't great.
  • I've found the frame-by-frame key in VLC, and nothing will stop my screencapping now, mwahaha!
  • Randomly alternating my comments between Casual HTML and Markdown. What could go wrong?


Writing/making things
My DNW-kinkfic continues, as I turn 1625 words of zero draft into Draft 1.0. Ot1h, it's very freeing to know almost no one will read this; otoh, the zero drafting comes with that feeling people talk about with outlining, where the impetus starts to leak out of the balloon... I'm going to finish it anyway, and I need to hurry up so I can make stuff for Wishlist.

Life/health/mental state things
For most of my adult life, I needed 8 to 9 hours of sleep a night to function well and be healthy. A couple of years ago, I read an article about how people over fifty shouldn't get more than 8 hours, and actually 7 is better. (Cannot remember the reasoning.) My expectations and sleep needs immediately dropped to 7ish hours per night, for lo, I am profoundly susceptible to the power of suggestion. Except that this week while Andrew's been sick, I've been getting 8 hours, and I feel good actually. So much more energy. tl;dr: I am ridiculous.

Cat
Sometimes during morning on-the-bed strokes, Halle crawls between two layers of blanket, and I never know if she's calling time on the stroking, or if this is some hide-and-seek cat game I'm supposed to know the rules of.

Food
I cook mostly vegetarian when it's just me. I really want a burger.

Good things
Immune systems. Fresh fruit. Several days of sunshine. Guardian. Dreamwidth activity generally. Cat. Andrew. LWS Writers' Hour. This cover of Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights" (Youtube).

Poll #33544 Cluedo
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 37


Your murder weapon of choice

View Answers

asp
9 (24.3%)

cyanide
6 (16.2%)

bulldozer
5 (13.5%)

heartbreak
7 (18.9%)

industrial freezer
2 (5.4%)

fright
1 (2.7%)

cassowary
19 (51.4%)

extremely elegant clothing
13 (35.1%)

other
2 (5.4%)

ticky-box full of musical frogs jamming away on their bongos
17 (45.9%)

ticky-box full of neglected-houseplant guilt
11 (29.7%)

ticky-box full of throwing coins into the wishing abyss
16 (43.2%)

ticky-box full of cartoon dogs going to the movies
13 (35.1%)

ticky-box of what would a Gamma/Delta/Epsilon AU look like? radioactive river permittivity?
8 (21.6%)

ticky-box full of vertical stripes
13 (35.1%)

ticky-box full of hugs
29 (78.4%)

mossy_bench: Barriss Offee (barriss)
[personal profile] mossy_bench posting in [community profile] vidding
Hello! I made a Barriss Offee/Ahsoka Tano vid, from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and I would love a second pair of eyes.

I have a couple specific things I'd appreciate feedback on (pacing/flow, coloring, effects) but I'd be grateful for any constructive criticism, honestly--regardless of whether you're familiar with the canon. This is my first full-length vid.

Some further information:
  • Length is 3:52
  • It was edited using Premiere
  • Content-wise, this is an F/F shipping video with some cartoon violence and flashing.

If you're willing to beta, please feel free to leave a comment below or message me. Thank you! <3
musesfool: principal ava coleman, abbott elementary, with a skeptical look (no seriously)
[personal profile] musesfool
So here's a question for you, especially if you do office-type work: when did people start sending pictures of things instead of actual documents in a work-related setting? And WHY???

I have had this happen repeatedly recently, and then instead of just going on with my work easily, I have to email back and ask for a version in a program that I can edit. (If I don't need to edit, I will sometimes just print it as a PDF so I can attach and send it to people, but that is still an extra step I have to take because someone else couldn't put their work in a work-appropriate format.)

Personally, I get not wanting to share a linked document - I do it but I kind of hate other people in my documents because of version control issues (...or maybe just control issues? 😬😬😬) - but anything is better than a useless JPEG pasted into the body of an email when what I ASKED FOR was a list of attendees for a meeting I may need to sort, or a purchase requisition that I will need to update.

As a related item, stop with the QR codes! Our HR department sends emails about training opportunities or other events and is like, "Use the QR code to register!" Like, how about no? And certainly not when it's an event to which we are inviting board members, some of whom are LITERALLY in their 90s and not tech-savvy. What is wrong with a nice LINK to a FORM on a regular WEBBED SITE?

I guess I am feeling very Abe Simpson yells at clouds today, but come on. These are not things that make work easier! (Well, maybe it's easier for the people who do this, but then they have to deal with my annoying follow up emails, so is it really easier for them???)

In other news, my younger nephew got a promotion that required him to move to California in a hurry, so he flew out last night. I will miss him! Who will I call now when I need a tall person to do things in my apartment??? (Just kidding! It's a great opportunity for him, and he is some kind of regional manager now with a region that includes Hawaii, so my sister and I are already like, "let us plan a trip to visit him IN HAWAII!" [note: I will likely never be able to afford a trip to Hawaii, but a girl can dream.])

*

Fly Trap, by Frances Hardinge

Aug. 27th, 2025 10:46 am
runpunkrun: Dana Scully reading Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space' in the style of a poster you'd find in your school library, text: Read. (reading)
[personal profile] runpunkrun
The continued adventures of runaway orphan Mosca Mye, her horrible goose, and Eponymous Clent, poet, thief, conman, and mentor.

This does a neat job of reminding the reader of the events and personages of the previous book, Fly By Night, while introducing a whole new city and its dark underworld. I enjoyed it even more than the first book. It's tense and inventive and the story doesn't let up for a second, with always something meaningful at stake.

Recommended! Though you'll probably want to read the first book first.

Contains: childbirth; incarceration; children in peril; rigidly enforced class system.

In which I read therefore I am

Aug. 27th, 2025 05:13 pm
spiralsheep: Sheep wearing an eyepatch (Default)
[personal profile] spiralsheep
Reading: 86 books to 27 Aug 2025 (and 5 dnfs).

81. Perspectives, by Laurent Binet (translated by Sam Taylor), 3.5/5.
A murder mystery novel set in Florence in the 1550s and using historical people as characters. I like the epistolary format and wide variety of correspondents. I especially enjoyed the conspiracy of idealistic artists against pragmatic politicians (and am not even miffed that the historians were all supporting the politicians). Also, Binet managed to pull off the only funny joke about the French military surrendering, and the person he chose to deliver it was the best possible choice.

82. The Passengers on the Hankyu Line, by Hiro Arikawa (translated by Allison Markin Powell), 3.5/5.
A Japanese, slice of life, composite novel or short story cycle that does exactly what it says in the title by introducing us to various railway passengers and their interactions.

Quote:
a person alone
without any kind of distraction
looking animated
is very conspicuous.
*

But none of the characters are alone for too long. Mostly a gentle and positive read, with multiple happy endings, although I didn't think the last two wrap-up stories in the suite were as good as the cycle they were concluding.

83. Accidental Darlings, by Crystal Jeans, 2025, historical lgbt novel, 4.5/5.

Lgb(t) historical-ish novel set in the interwar period, with a coming of age theme in a broadly found-family framework, and a style I can only describe as gothy Dickensian modernism in a surprisingly smooth medley without choppy changes of tone or key. The author is also particularly a Bronte fan. This novel was a serendipitous choice from the library because if I'd had an accurate description then I wouldn't've picked it: orphan, scary aunt, large dilapidated house, vicious servant, local bigots, ageing bright young things. I found it a compelling read with enjoyable moments and a well-earned fabulous ending, a smidgin of hope in a glassful of resilience. The in-jokes in the epilogue chapter boosted it overall from a 4 to a 4.5/5 because lmao (literally!).

Warnings: the dogs die (yes, two are murdered, but it's fair to add that humans also die through illness and accident), and emetophobes should avoid this (within the first 100 pages there's a child, a haemophobe twice, and a dog, and it doesn't stop there).

Quotes
- (I didn't know what kind of dog he was but he reminded me of an overgrown gerbil.)
[Me: corgi? Honestly, I need suggestions and opinions here, plz.]

Cut for one of the v words, y'know like vuvuzela. )

Back

Aug. 27th, 2025 10:46 am
marthawells: Murderbot with helmet (Default)
[personal profile] marthawells
I'm back, sort of. We did a week of vacation after WorldCon, then got sick on the last day, so I'm still recovering. Covid tests were negative, so I think it's just a bad cold. It probably wouldn't be so bad if we hadn't had to do a full day of travel from 6:00 am to 10:30 pm to get home.


More later, but one of my favorite things was the really wonderful piece that N.K. Jemisin wrote about me for the program book.



***

Big thing I wanted to mention here: https://www.humblebundle.com/books/martha-wells-murderbot-and-more-tor-books

This is a 14 ebook Humble Bundle from Tor, (DRM-free as usual) and you can select a portion of the price to donate to World Central Kitchen.
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (Default)
[personal profile] yhlee
On a personal note, peace to Rai Weiss (https://news.mit.edu/2025/professor-emeritus-rainer-weiss-dies-0826) - physicist (co-won the Nobel Prize for detection of gravity waves at LIGO); learnt yesterday that he'd passed. I knew him only glancingly/socially (my husband worked with him as a grad student at MIT at LIGO Hanford) but I remember his extraordinary kindness and warmth.

Daily Happiness

Aug. 26th, 2025 09:15 pm
torachan: an orange cat poking his head out from blankets (ollie)
[personal profile] torachan
1. I'm definitely starting to feel a lot more comfortable with this new project at work, though it's still a lot of unknown territory. It's been good having this team here from Japan for this month to help hammer things out, but I will also be glad when they're gone and there are less meetings (I've literally have two hour meetings every day with this one guy for the past two weeks; they are productive, but still).

2. It was much nicer weather today. Even when I came out to the car after being at work, I didn't have to blast the AC to get it bearable for the drive home.

3. Yesterday's episode of Game Changer was so good. This season has really been hitting it out of the park, but man. That was amazing. I can't wait to watch the behind the scenes episode next week. The episode also involved mentioning a lot of previous episodes, which made us want to do a rewatch, so I think we'll be doing that soon.

4. I love Chloe's little foot freckle.

DragonCon & BPAL?!

Aug. 26th, 2025 11:36 am
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (Default)
[personal profile] yhlee
Do I know anyone who is going to DragonCon this weekend in Atlanta, Georgia and who is

(a) willing to buy some BPAL for me there and ship it to me (Louisiana)
(b) in exchange for either filthy lucre (PayPal or Venmo) or
(c) 4 oz. handspun yarn just for you to be negotiated?

examples of my spinning:


wool, 2-ply


wool/sari silk, 2-ply

and more )

re: (c), fibers I have on hand in sufficient quantity



These are wool. Front left (greens & blues) and front right (blues & greys) I have 4-ish oz.

In back, I have 1-2 oz. of others (pink & blue, sky blue, navy blue), which could be blended, or I could spin multiple yarns up to 4 oz.

(I can't get more of the colorways shown here because these were inherited from others' destashes.)

Also 2 oz each of the following:



- left: 25/25/25/25 flax/hemp/cotton/ramie blend
- right: 25/25/25/25 flax/hemp/bamboo/ramie blend

I have smaller quantities of various sari silk colorways that could be blended into most of these for effect. (The silk fiber is the stuff on the chair, not the wool yarn draped over the arm lol.)



Or I could order US-based fiber batts/combed top (etc) within an agreed price range and spin those for you.

But I imagine filthy lucre is the most interesting. :p Leave a comment or email me at yoon at yoonhalee dot com!
spiralsheep: Sheep wearing an eyepatch (Default)
[personal profile] spiralsheep
Mascots: while I was on holiday in Conwy I found a rare sixteenth century reference to the mascot genus Gritty, best known for the endemic North American species Gritty philadelphus, adopted as genius of the Philadelphia Flyers. The Gritty I saw, probably a representation of the endangered Welsh species Gritty gwyneddii, was depicted in plasterwork or pargetting in several rooms at Plas Mawr, notably in a dated overmantel* completed in 1580. There were several other heraldic emblems such as the ever popular severed Englishman's head motif. Also, why are red stockings such a thing? Answers on a postcard c/o Dr Freud....

* Note: an overmantel goes over a mantelpiece, while an overmantle goes over clothes.

Gritty gwyneddii in pargetting, 1580, at Plas Mawr in Conwy

Plastered and nsfw )
jasmasson: (cookies)
[personal profile] jasmasson posting in [community profile] fancake
Fandom: Mo Dao Zu Shi/The Untamed
Pairings/Characters: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian
Rating: Explicit
Length: 70,972 words
Creator Links: harriet_vane at AO3
Theme: Marriage of Convenience

Summary:

It’s a really unfortunate thing, developing a crush on your husband. Wei Ying had assumed this would be easy. Lan Zhan had been so icy and unpleasant to him, it had never occurred to him that he might end up spending the next however many years with this dumb, burning feeling in his chest whenever he looks at him.

ā€œOkay,ā€ says Wei Ying. ā€œBut tell me if I…if the pretending gets to be too hard, okay?ā€

ā€œIt will not,ā€ says Lan Zhan, quietly certain.

Reccer’s Notes: Is it redundant to rec a fic that has 31,682 kudos (and counting)? And has already been recced on this community (although 5 years ago and for a different theme?) Probably. Am I going to do it anyway? Yes. Yes, I am.

Because it is fabulous.

It’s kidfic with Yaun at his most adorable, it’s a modern AU, it’s beautifully written and even if you’ve read it before I’m sure now is a great time for a reread.

Lan Zhan is his impeccable, smitten, useless at communicating self and Wei Wuxian is, as always, just doing his best in the circumstances he finds himself in.

An absolute classic. BTW, If you haven’t dipped a toe in MDZS canon or fanon, you could read this anyway due to its AU nature, and then perhaps be hooked… 31,682 AO3 users can’t be wrong, right?

Fanwork links: The Simplest Way Forward

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eruthros: Delenn from Babylon 5 with a startled expression and the text "omg!" (Default)
eruthros

October 2024

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