2 new pinch hits

May. 28th, 2025 08:52 pm
longficmod: Photo of a woman tying a running shoe (Default)
[personal profile] longficmod posting in [community profile] fandom5k
Updated pinch hits here! Thanks very much to everyone who has claimed one. If you can claim one of these, please comment with your AO3 name and the number of the pinch hit you want. All comments are screened.

Like main assignments, these pinch hits are due on 28 June, and they require a check-in during the week of 7-14 June. If you would like to claim one but know you'll need longer than a month, please let me know, and we can discus.

You may ask to exchange your assignment for an open pinch hit. If you are given that pinch hit and fulfill it, this won't count as a default. Please tell me in your comment requesting a pinch hit if you are asking to swap.

PH 2 - Blue Lock (Manga), 終わりのセラフ | Owari no Seraph | Seraph of the End (Anime & Manga), Fairy Tail )


PH 5 - Temeraire - Naomi Novik, The Inheritance Cycle - Christopher Paolini, His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman )


CLAIMED - PH 7 - Dial M for Murder (1954), To Catch a Thief (1955), Dial M for Murder - Hatcher )


PH 8 - Path of Night (Podcast), Vampire: The Masquerade - Various Authors (Choice of Games), Vampire: The Masquerade Port Saga (Podcast) )


PH 9 - 終わりのセラフ | Owari no Seraph | Seraph of the End (Anime & Manga), Blue Lock (Manga), Fairy Tail )


PH 13 - The Elementalists (Visual Novel), Heart of Battle - Fay Ikin, Royal Affairs - Harris-Powell-Smith )


PH 15 - Code Vein (Video Game), 神さまのいない日曜日 | Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi | Sunday Without God (Anime & Manga), Octopath Traveler II (Video Game), 刀使ノ巫女 | Toji no Miko | Katana Maidens (Anime), よるのないくに | Yoru no Nai Kuni | Nights of Azure (Video Games), Xenoblade Chronicles (Video Game) )


PH 17 - Breaking Bad, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), The Godfather (1972 1974 1990) )


PH 18 - Ancient History RPF, Solstice (MoaCube Visual Novel), Crossover Fandom )


PH 19 - Ace Combat (Video Games), Dishonored (Video Games), Warhammer 40k (Novels) - Various Authors )


PH 20 - ATEEZ (Band), Blink-182 (Band), Men's Basketball RPF )


CLAIMED - PH 24 - Biggles Series - W. E. Johns, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Original Work )


CLAIMED - PH 25 - The Pitt (TV), The Faculty (1998), All Elite Wrestling )

Please check your emails!

May. 28th, 2025 08:39 pm
longficmod: Photo of a woman tying a running shoe (Default)
[personal profile] longficmod posting in [community profile] fandom5k
I've sent out a few questions from Fandom5K creators that haven't received responses for a while, so please make sure you check the email associated with your AO3 account occasionally during this exchange. This may be especially important as we reach the deadlines.

You may also need to check your Spam folder.

Currently seeking replies from participants whose names start with:
  • a
  • e
Thanks for checking!

All the Things (Alias)

May. 28th, 2025 06:18 pm
[syndicated profile] polyrecsdaily_feed
All the Things (Alias):

All The Things, by Kat. Nestra: Oh, man, this is good. Sydney tearing herself apart and putting herself back together.

rachelmanija: (Books: old)
[personal profile] rachelmanija


Sciona, the first woman ever admitted to the University of Magic, takes on Thomil, a janitor from a discriminated-against culture, as her lab assistant, and they both learn dark secrets about their world.

Thomil is introduced when his clan makes a desperate run across deadly ground to get to the safety of a city surrounded by a magical shield. The shield protects against bitter cold and the deadly Blight, which randomly zaps and dissolves people, but the area around the city is particularly Blight-infested. Only Thomil and his baby niece survive. When they arrive, they find that the city natives hate their race and has consigned them all as a permanent underclass.

Ten years later, Sciona, a well-to-do young woman in the city, is preparing for her magic exam to try to get into the sexist magic university, which no woman has ever passed. Though she does pass, all the male mages but her mentor hate her and hassle her. The only other person who's even remotely nice to her is Thomil, the janitor, who is assigned as her lab assistant as a cruel joke. But though Sciona is racist and classist, and Thomil is mildly sexist in an oblivious way, they find that they kind of get along...

Wang has an engaging, easy-read style for the most part, the intros to the two main characters are quite compelling, and despite the heavy-handed axes of privilege themes, Thomil and Sciona have a nice dynamic.

I said "for the most part." The exception is the magic system, which I think is basically computer programming via magic typewriters (spellographs). The wizards program a spell to access a specific area of the magical Otherrealm (which they can't see or sense in any way, so they're just plotting points on a grid) to grab magical energy or matter from it. But we get MUCH more detailed and lengthy descriptions of it, from long explanations to actual spells:

CONDITION 1: DEVICE is 15 Vendric feet higher than its position at the time of activation.

ACTION 1: FIRE will siphon from POWER an amount of energy no lower than 4.35 and no higher than 4.55 on the Leonic scale.

ACTION 2: FIRE will siphon within the distance of DEVICE no higher than 3 Vendric inches.

If and only if CONDITION 1 is met, ACTION 1 and ACTION 2 will go into effect.


The first half is Sciona and Thomil working on various spells, interspersed with very heavy-handed commentary on colonialism, sexism, and how Sciona totally gets feminism when it applies to her personally but is oblivious to all other isms. Sciona is an awful, self-centered person and Thomil is mostly perfect. Almost exactly halfway through, there is a shocking reveal. At least, it shocked many readers. It did not shock me.

Read more... )

Despite what the plot description sounds like, Sciona and Thomil do not have a romance beyond occasional sexy feelings. It's a magical dystopia/dark academia, I think similar to Babel (which I could not get very far into) but less anvillicious in that it does not have literal footnotes saying stuff like "This is a racist comment and racism is bad." (In the bookshop, I have Blood Over Bright Haven tagged "If you like Babel you will like this.") Sadly for M. L. Wang, this comparative subtlety got them some reviews on Goodreads accusing them of condoning Sciona being a bad person and endorsing her beliefs.

I did not care for this book but I can see how it would work for many readers, especially if they're shocked by the twist at the halfway mark.
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

Karina Ahmed's parents have gone to Bangladesh for a month to visit family, leaving her with her grandmother, her younger brother, and the class "bad boy" (he wears a leather jacket) she's supposed to be tutoring in English, if he ever shows up.

In this, I think Bhuiyan wrote the book she needed—a dutiful brown girl finds a rich white Tumblr-therapy speaking boyfriend and the courage to defy her parents—and I hope it finds the readers who need it. The story is moving and the romance is sweet, though the prose often reads as unpracticed and the romance eventually devolves into saccharine cliches with Ace (his name is Ace) saying things like "you've stolen my heart" and "you're the brightest star here" which dulls its originality and makes Ace the most supportive, considerate, loving, patient, woke, rich white teenage boy in all of New York City, which was a bit hard to swallow. It's 100% wish fulfillment and I'm 100% cool with that, but it made Ace and the actual dating the least satisfying part of this for me. Instead, I was most interested in Karina's struggle to figure out what she wanted from her life and whether or not she could stand up to her parents and ask for it. The family dynamics are well drawn and I was invested in Karina and her relationship with her parents, her brother, her grandma, and her many, many cousins.

Features:

  • a Muslim Bangladeshi-American teenager
  • teenage poetry
  • fake dating
  • a kick-ass Dadu (grandma)
  • the unconditional love of two OTT best friends
  • depictions of anxiety
  • controlling parents
pauraque: Marina Sirtis in costume as Deanna reads Women Who Love Too Much on the Enterprise bridge (st women who love too much)
[personal profile] pauraque
In this Hainish novella set sometime before Rocannon's World, the pacifist inhabitants of an idyllic forest planet are enslaved and brutalized by colonizers from the Terran military who are there to ecocidally clear-cut the forest for wood because Earth is nearly out of trees.

I have read this book before, but not in a long time because I'm afraid I don't like it. (cut for negativity) )

what a find by O. G.

May. 27th, 2025 08:57 pm
musesfool: the ocean (your ocean refuses no river)
[personal profile] musesfool
I slept through for a full 7 hours last night! right up until my alarm went off, actually, without waking up once!

I also got some fantastic videos of Baby Miss L going nuts about TATOES and BROCCOLI and also some mouse game she plays on my sister's tablet. She is such a character! <333

I haven't started the new season of Poker Face or Andor yet - I am still in HGTV mode. No emotional investment, and it satisfies both my nosiness about other people's houses and my need to be judgy about other people's aesthetic taste without hurting anyone's feelings.

Every time someone says they want to go BOLD with color and their palette is black and white I want to punch them. (I'm not saying black and white can't be a bold choice, just that it's not a bold COLOR choice.) Everyone wants POPS of COLOR but then the color turns out to be greige. I just...find it wearisome sometimes. I get it if you are doing a quick refresh in order to sell, since allegedly neutrals sell better? But these are people supposedly doing their "forever homes" or their "dream homes" so why not pick something interesting? At least a little bit? In the downstairs powder room??? I'm begging you, please!

Ahem.

If you asked me what my preferred home decor aesthetic is, I would say beachy with lots of blues and greens in various shades, and okay, a lot of white, a little gray, and some occasional wood or wicker accents. Definitely would want hardwood floors (or LVP that looked like hardwood). I'd want a large zero-access shower with a built-in bench with some fancy tile, and I wouldn't want to waste space on a tub (or double sinks, since I live alone), but I would like more linen/towel storage.

I would obviously want a large chef's kitchen, with FULL SIZE appliances and a big range - I don't go for that countertop stovetop and wall oven set up, I'd want a bigass stove with six burners - and I certainly wouldn't put it (or the sink) on an island. I'd like a large butcher block work surface and a breakfast nook with an eastern exposure, but don't need a formal dining room or a ginormous island. I do like white upper cabinets, probably with reeded glass doors, and then a color on the lower cabinets - a cobalt blue, maybe, or a deep teal.

The place I might go a little modern/industrial/maybe even avant garde would be in the light fixtures. I have seen some WILD chandeliers and lighting options on these shows and some of them are gorgeous.

Obviously I worked a lot of this out in the time between going into contract on my apartment and finally closing, so I was able to pick stuff out that all kind of went together, because I absolutely understand being a renter for years and not really being able to put your stamp on a place. (all the people who already live in their own houses who have no sense of their own style, though - they kind of baffle me, because didn't they paint/decorate their house? I get maybe not knowing what your architectural style is but these are mainly people in their 30s and older - they should have some sense of what they like, shouldn't they, even if they can't pin it to a specific style?)

Anyway, I don't need people to do their own homes in my preferred style, and some of these homes turn out to be gorgeous, but it would be nice if everyone wasn't doing the same things across several different home renovation shows. I guess HGTV has a bit of a house style? But if you've watched any of it, you can see why Keith and Evan from Bargain Block are my favorites - they actually do a lot of fun different things (or they used to, anyway), where even if it isn't something I'd choose, it still has a strong sense of style.

*
earthspirits: (Dracula & Mina 2)
[personal profile] earthspirits posting in [community profile] historium
Fandom: Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Characters: Dracula, Mina Murray, Lucy Westenra + Original Characters.
Pairing: Dracula / Mina
Era: 19th Century
Title: A Waltz in the Garden
Rating: G
Word Count: 1,260
Summary: At a summer dance, Mina meets an intriguing stranger.
Note: I created this romantic little tale to honor Bram Stoker and World Dracula Day - May 26. On this day in 1897, his novel "Dracula" was first published.
 
 
 
 
 
feurioo: (tv: coffee prince eun-chan cute)
[personal profile] feurioo posting in [community profile] tv_talk

Laptop-TV combo with DVDs on top and smartphone on the desk


It’s often been the case that the rich and powerful are shown on TV far more often than lower middle class, working class, or poor people, despite their actual percentages in most populations. Does this bother you as a viewer? Does genre play any role in that?

The Te of John (Stargate: Atlantis)

May. 26th, 2025 05:37 pm
[syndicated profile] polyrecsdaily_feed
The Te of John (Stargate: Atlantis):

The Te of John, by Speranza. shrift: A medical team met them with a gurney, and they gave McKay a light sedative and wheeled him away. John followed, feeling drained, weighted down by yet another fuck-up; days like this he hated his job, or maybe it was himself that he… Continue reading →

at the knees with a cutter

May. 25th, 2025 08:42 pm
musesfool: key lime pie (pie = love)
[personal profile] musesfool
The bbq was fun, even if the weather was chilly and rainy. We saw a huge double rainbow after it rained, and one of them was the most vivid and long-lasting rainbow I ever saw. it was pretty amazing.

Baby Miss L had a grand old time her in personal ball pit, and dancing to both the 90s playlist (it was a 90s-themed party) and later to her own favorite Elmo songs. She was really vibing with Pantera and Alice in Chains - that child is going to be in the mosh pit at the club before you know it.

In other news, Alyssa tried the confetti cookies and really liked them. This morning, she texted me like, "this is exactly what they're supposed to taste like!" Anthony and my sister also liked them, so I guess it's just me, but thy were disgustingly sweet to me. *hands* Trish also liked the brownies, so that worked out too! I will definitely have to make the brownies again, so I can taste them. My sister made ice cream cone cupcakes for the party, which I guess she used to make for the kids to take to school for their birthday's back in the day, so there was a nostalgia factor involved. They were good, though I still like my chocolate cupcake recipe best. *g*

Now I'm watching the Mets, though really, I'm listening to the local radio broadcast because good lord the ESPN broadcast is the worst. Simply terrible in all aspects.

*

100 Multifandom icons

May. 26th, 2025 09:21 am
magnavox_23: An animated icon, Charlotte caresses Helen's hair, Helen tilts her head, and they both lean in and kiss. (Sanctuary_Helen/Charlotte_kiss)
[personal profile] magnavox_23 posting in [community profile] fandom_icons
Actors: Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks, Michael Des Barres, David Tennant, Ncuti Gutwa, Jodie Whittaker, Jo Martin, Peter Capaldi, Jonathan Groff, Michael Sheen, Con O'Neill, Samba Schutte, Benedict Cumberbatch, Pedro Pascal, Oscar Isaac, Jeff Goldblum, Rhys Darby, Renée O'Connor & Lucy Lawless

Fandoms: Stargate, MacGyver, Doctor Who, Good Omens, Our Flag Means Death, Sherlock, The Mandalorian, The Last Of Us, Star Trek, What We Do In The Shadows, Pokemon & The X Files



Check out the rest here. <3

Let Go (Smallville)

May. 25th, 2025 05:05 pm
[syndicated profile] polyrecsdaily_feed
Let Go (Smallville):

Let Go, by Andariel. shrift: Um. This is such a hot Lex and Chloe story that I’m no longer coherent. That’s all you really need to know.

The Twilight Zone (2019-2020)

May. 25th, 2025 08:56 am
runpunkrun: fox mulder and dana scully in black and white, text: American Gothic (american gothic)
[personal profile] runpunkrun
Finally, also from my drafts, and the last in my irregular series from 2020-2024 of watching stuff, The Twilight Zone, on DVD from the library:

Jordan Peele and Simon Kinberg (IMDb says: A British film producer, director, and screenwriter known for producing the X-Men films, Fant4stic, Logan, the Deadpool films, Cinderella, and The Martian) reboot the Twilight Zone. The stories are twisty, thought provoking, and intense, reproducing the original show's vibe and big name guest stars, while also adding diversity and confronting modern social issues like racism, sexism, and colonialism. I could only comfortably watch one episode at a time, and sometimes only uncomfortably. "Replay" was particularly effective in the way it portrayed the threat that police pose for Black people in America and I found it to be very tense. Other favorites from season one: "The Comedian," "A Traveler" (written by Glen Morgan of The X-Files's Morgan & Wong), and "Not All Men." But, as with any anthology, the stories are of varying quality and sometimes I spent the whole hour trying to divine the twist or decipher the in-universe rules because the show failed to make me interested in the characters or their problems. The season one finale, "Blurryman," was especially boring despite featuring my beloved Zazie Beetz.

I ended up I watching both seasons for completism rather than pleasure, with the second season a huge let down after the first. I briefly perked up for "8" about a remote science station doing deep sea research in Antarctica, all of that deeply my jam, starring Joel McHale's face, of which I am a big fan, but the rest of him is not so great at dramatic acting, and the episode itself was so flat I couldn't even care about what the twist meant for the fate of humanity. The standout in that season was easily "Try, Try" and its (correct) reading of Groundhog Day as romantic horror, as a woman is stalked and manipulated by Topher Grace in ways she couldn't possibly anticipate or defend against.

The Rise of the Golden Idol (2024)

May. 25th, 2025 11:14 am
pauraque: Guybrush writing in his journal adrift on the sea in a bumper car (monkey island adrift)
[personal profile] pauraque
This sequel to The Case of the Golden Idol picks up the story two centuries later, in the 1970s. The ancient idol is sought by a new cast of characters including corrupt cops, a New Age guru, and research scientists in the grip of cutthroat laboratory politics. This time it comes to light that the idol doesn't just hold the power of life and death, but also of memory—which, in the wrong hands, could be even more dangerous. (And could throw a spanner in the works if you happen to be a detective trying to figure out who knows what and how they know it.)

couple gets out of their car to help a man who's fallen down icy stairs

I think this game is not as difficult or as complex as Case, and other reviews have said the same thing. But I also have to wonder if part of what's happening is that we are getting better at playing these games. This is something I think about a lot—game difficulty isn't absolute, it's relative to player skill and genre knowledge. If you've played Case you're going to have insight into how these devs' minds work and how they construct their puzzles, not to mention other Obra Dinn-inspired deduction games have been cropping up (e.g. The Roottrees are Dead) which people may have played in the interim. Gameplay can only be new to you once, and if you play enough of a genre you're going to start perceiving a lot of puzzles and encounters as rearrangements of elements you've seen before. So is Rise too easy, or did we just git gud? Could be a combination of factors!

Read more... )

The Rise of the Golden Idol is available on Steam for $19.99 USD. There's also a free demo.

Doctor Who ? 07

May. 25th, 2025 10:41 am
selenak: (Rani - Kathyh)
[personal profile] selenak
Before I get to this week's episode: is an interview with Juno Dawson, who wrote last week's episode. In it, she makes a comment about the Doctor and the Spoiler which I found interesting in term's of this week's episode: which is spoilery. )

Now, on to The Wish World. Basically, classic pre finale set up episode, making things as desperate as possible, though this time the horror is of a very different type compared to other RTD pre finale episodes.

Spoilers live in a Tory Utopia )

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