maidenjedi | Reading

*dramatic sting* Tiquy Boxx, the time has come for you to Rush for your life! *incomprehensible but eerily pretty dolphin music begins playing* Obviously it won't be this weekend because of who I am as a person, but thanks to the tie Round 151 shall be 13-15 June. Mods, please confirm your availability by claiming an anchor post, and if you've always wanted to be a Mod, now's your chance to shine!

	GMT	EDT (Boston)	CDT (Chicago)	PDT (Seattle)	BST (London)	CEST (Berlin)	AEST (Brisbane)	Designated Mod
Hour -23	midnight	8pm Thu	7pm Thu	5pm Thu	1am Fri	2am Fri	10am Fri	xandromedovna
Hour -17	6am Fri	2am Fri	1am Fri	11pm Thu	7am Fri	8am Fri	4pm Fri
Hour -11	12pm Fri	8am Fri	7am Fri	5am Fri	1pm Fri	2pm Fri	10pm Fri	lullabymoon?
Hour -5	6pm Fri	2pm Fri	1pm Fri	11am Fri	7pm Fri	8pm Fri	4am Sat	lullabymoon
Hour 0	11pm Fri	7pm Fri	6pm Fri	4pm Fri	midnight	1am Sat	9am Sat
Hour 1	midnight	8pm Fri	7pm Fri	5pm Fri	1am Sat	2am Sat	10am Sat
Hour 6	5am Sat	1am Sat	midnight	10pm Fri	6am Sat	7am Sat	3pm Sat
Hour 12	11am Sat	7am Sat	6am Sat	4am Sat	12pm Sat	1pm Sat	9pm Sat	lullabymoon
Hour 18	5pm Sat	1pm Sat	12pm Sat	10am Sat	6pm Sat	7pm Sat	3am Sun	lullabymoon
Hour 24	11pm Sat	7pm Sat	6pm Sat	4pm Sat	midnight	1am Sun	9am Sun
Hour 30	5am Sun	1am Sun	midnight	10pm Sat	6am Sun	7am Sun	3pm Sun
Hour 36	11am Sun	7am Sun	6am Sun	4am Sun	12pm Sun	1pm Sun	9pm Sun	lullabymoon
Hour 42	5pm Sun	1pm Sun	12pm Sun	10am Sun	6pm Sun	7pm Sun	3am Mon	lullabymoon
Hour 47	10pm Sun	6pm Sun	5pm Sun	3pm Sun	11pm Sun	midnight	8am Mon	xandromedovna
Hour 48	11pm Sun	7pm Sun	6pm Sun	4pm Sun	midnight	1am Mon	9am Mon	xandromedovna
Round Ends	midnight	8pm Sun	7pm Sun	5pm Sun	1am Mon	2am Mon	10am Mon	xandromedovna

feurioo posting in

tv_talk

Assortment of black and white speech bubbles

Welcome to the weekly roundup post! What are you watching this week? What are you excited about?

polyrecsdaily_feed

https://polyrecsdaily.tumblr.com/post/785012452279631872

When She Walks In the Room (Due South):

When She Walks In the Room, by Wax Jism. Nestra: Oh, ouch. I wanted to skip ahead to make the pain end sooner. I couldn’t bear to. This is not the story to read if you’re looking for a pick-me-up, but it’s Fraser and Ray, doing the best they can,… Continue reading →

https://polyrecsdaily.tumblr.com/post/785012452279631872

flowing_river posting in

yuletide

whumpex is a whump themed multifandom exchange. You must create a fanwork that is a minimum of 500 words or a clean sketch on unlined paper if a participant has opted into art. We have 2 unclaimed pinch hits that are due June 9th at 10PM PST. If the 1 pinch hit requesting 3 unique fandoms is not filled by then, we will have another delay of a week.

Rules and Guidelines | Current Pinch Hit Post

PH 10 - Noblesse (Manhwa)

~~PH 16 - SK8 the Infinity (Anime), Winx Club, D.Gray-man (Anime & Manga), My Little Pony Generation 4: Friendship Is Magic (Cartoon 2010), My Little Pony Generation 4: Equestria Girls (Cartoon 2013)~~

For more details/to claim, view the pinch hit post.

musesfool

I slept very poorly last night and woke up with a blinding headache and some serious nausea, so I called out of work and went back to bed for a couple of hours.

I keep meaning to post then forgetting what I want to say, since it's mostly just about work. I did get several amazing photos of Baby Miss L in a Spider-Gwen outfit with a hood (with a glittery pink mask on it), a cute blue spider on the torso (when I first saw it, I admit my initial response was "Khaji Da?" so it's more scarab than spider but also she's 2 and a half, so) and a skirt decorated with webbing. It's so cute and she apparently approved of it by saying "Spider-Man! Spider-Man!" in her specific toddler lingo. And the Superman dress finally arrived so I hope to see pictures of that soon, too! Also, she has taken to carrying her Easter basket over her shoulder like a purse and calling it her bag, so she is definitely getting a headstart on her fashionista personality.

In other news, I was reading some fic I was otherwise enjoying but I will never ever ever understand why in EVERY SINGLE FANDOM I have ever read fic in, there are some gobsmackingly awful non-canon nicknames that proliferate. Sometimes for characters who already have a canonical nickname, so why? I mean, I get that the use of a nickname can be intimacy marker (much like the switch from last name to first name, or full first name to canon nickname), but the fact is, none of the characters this is applied to would ever allow themselves to be called these names by ANYONE, not even an intimate partner. The worst is when Jason calls Talia "Tals." NO. WHO thinks TALIA AL GHUL, DAUGHTER OF THE DEMON, is going to let ANYONE call her "Tals." No, really, meet me in the parking lot, I just have some questions.

I also don't understand when people apologize for...well, anything really, in their author's notes, but especially when they say shit like, "Sorry this chapter is mostly dialogue! We'll get back to the introspection soon!" I mean, I guess some people don't like dialogue??? Obviously mileage varies. But it is frequently the best part of a story for me. If your story holds off on dialogue for too long in favor of maundering introspection, I will likely wander away and never come back (like, obviously if it's a 900-word plotless character ramble that's fine, but then you are not posting it in chapters, at least I'd hope not).

I guess if you're not confident in your character voices, dialogue can be difficult, but you're still going to need to get the character voice right in the narration/introspection, and some characters are not really going to be doing a lot of introspection at all, even in their own heads, so it's even harder to get them right. Which is probably when it's time to revisit canon. But I admit, dialogue is pretty much the easiest thing I find to write, so possibly it's just me.

*

Current Mood: better
Current Music: Mets vs Rockies on tv

pauraque

Rabbit & Steel is a bullet hell roguelike with fast-paced gameplay inspired by MMO combat and boss encounter mechanics. You have to learn how to optimally use your offensive and defensive abilities, sustaining enough damage to beat each boss within the time limit while constantly dodging projectiles and other hazards.

players try to wedge into a narrow safe zone while fighting a giant dragon

players try to wedge into a narrow safe zone while fighting a giant dragon

You can play solo, in which case it's primarily a bullet hell game, but co-op is where it really shines. In a group the bosses have multiplayer mechanics that will be familiar if you've played WoW or FF14: stack together for protection, spread apart so you don't blow each other up, etc. If you enjoy the feel of MMO combat and the process of planning strategies and mastering the unique dance of each boss encounter, but you don't like (or want a break from) all the long-term character power progression aspects of an MMO, this might be your new favorite game.

( Read more... )

Rabbit & Steel is on Steam for $14.99 USD. There's also a free demo.

rachelmanija

In a magical version of the medieval Middle East, a middle-aged single mom, who was once the notorious pirate Amina al-Sirafi, is dragged out of retirement for one final job.

This book is a complete and utter delight from start to finish. It has all the pirate tropes you could possibly want - sea battles! sea monsters! quests for magical objects! loyal crews! tossed overboard! marooned! - and sly twists on others. It's got great characters. It's got hilarious dialogue and character interactions. The world is wonderfully detailed and varied, full of plausible historical details and with a lovely faux-historical feel. There are stories within stories. It's all marvelous.

As a child, I had a book called Muslim Saints and Mystics, which was a translation of parts of the Tazkirat al-Awliyā, a collection of stories about Muslim saints written around 1200. It was funny and magical, and some of the stories-within-stories in Amina al-Sirafi have a similar feel. The novel neatly toes the line between dialogue that feels fairly contemporary and a plausibly historical mindset. Amina is horny as hell, but a serious Muslim who believes in not having sex before marriage; as a result, she's had five husbands. There's a major trans character, in addition to several gay characters; Amina has come across people before who prefer to live as the other sex, and takes it in stride without resorting to Tumblr-esque labels or attitudes.

I loved every moment of this book, and was delighted that though it has a reasonable ending, it is the start of a trilogy. It's the first book I've read by Chakraborty, and I'm excited to read her City of Brass series.

( Read more... )

frockflicks_feed

Posted by The Frock Flicks Team

https://frockflicks.com/summer-repeat-beauty-and-the-beast/

https://frockflicks.com/?p=148352

The Frock Flicks team is taking time off to start the summer, so we’re repeating

https://frockflicks.com/summer-repeat-beauty-and-the-beast/

https://frockflicks.com/?p=148352

anais_pf posting in

thefridayfive

These questions were suggested by

malloreigh.

1. What sets you apart from your friends?

2. What sets you apart from your family?

3. What sets you apart from your coworkers/fellow students?

4. What is the one thing about you that is most unique?

5. What is your most interesting quality?

Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!

polyrecsdaily_feed

https://polyrecsdaily.tumblr.com/post/784920689142530048

The Larks, Still Bravely Singing, Fly (The Secret Garden–Frances Hodgson Burnett):

The Larks, Still Bravely Singing, Fly, by Theo_Winterwood. Nestra: Spring had never been distant to Dickon, not until he learned how the bunks in the trench were so unlike sleeping in secret hollows on the moor with animals close.

https://polyrecsdaily.tumblr.com/post/784920689142530048

vaznetti

I feel like I have recently seen more than one person on my reading list linking to the Ever-Fixed Mark series by

AMarguerite -- which I enjoy very much whenever I reread it, but I was poking around and reminded of And Now the Storm-Blast Came, so now I am rereading that. It appears to be unfinished (and probably forever so) but is giving me exactly what I come to Jane Austen fanfiction for, which is extra-intense woobification of her iron woobie underappreciated heroines, of whom Anne Elliot is an excellent example. I am sure I read the story before, but have no real memory of anything that happens in it, so it's as if it's all new to me.

Having finished Andor (which did come together well in the end, I felt, with some touches I really appreciated, especially everything to do with Dedra's story and how she ended up) I decided to give Murderbot a try; I never have read the books, so it's all new to me, and I've seen the first two episodes. It seems enjoyable so far?

Also, a while ago I agreed to do some editing for English usage for someone on a different website where I use a different username (which is why I am mentioning it here not under flock) but I have not been back to work on it for about a month and now the avoidance is making everything worse and I can't make myself go to that website at all! Why is my brain doing this to me? It is literally the matter of sending a quick apology and getting my act together.

historygirls_feed

Posted by Unknown

http://the-history-girls.blogspot.com/2025/05/birds-of-blackfriars-michelle-lovric.html

I love birds and have lived within chirping distance of Blackfriars Bridge for two decades. Yet I only quite recently realized that it’s a twitcher’s paradise.

From the road, you’d never suspect it. You have to lean over the parapet to see the full, strange spectacle. Each column, east and west, is adorned with life-size sculptures of sea and river birds rendered in Portland Stone. Many beaks and wings are sadly eroded by the uncontrolled emissions of vessels on the Thames (a long and interesting story for another time). But some of the birds are still magnificent and even magnificently eccentric.

The bridge, the second on this site, was designed by Joseph Cubitt. (Cubitt also built the first Blackfriars Rail Bridge, now visible only in attractive iron columns poking out of the water.)

The sculptures are the work of John Birnie Philip (1824 – 1875). a London-born sculptor who worked extensively for the architect George Gilbert Scott. Philip’s daughter Beatrix married James McNeill Whistler in 1888.

The bridge was opened by Queen Victoria in November 1869, and it is said that members of the public booed her. This may have been because many homes were demolished to create the run-up to the bridge. Or it may have been the public expressing their anger at her disappearance from public view in the previous eight years, following the death of her husband Prince Albert.

The sculpted birds, at least, deserved a better reception. They are very hard to photograph, and I’m a poor photographer at the best of times, but a few images follow to give you an idea of their charms. Probably the best way to photograph them would be from the water below ... but the Thames, with its six metre tides, is not a place where that can safely be accomplished. Filming on the river is in any case controlled by the Port of London Authority ...

There birds on the west side are fresh-water creatures. Those on the east, facing towards the estuary, are sea-birds. One explanation for this choice is that Blackfriars was the place where the river turned from salt to sweet. However, technically that is a moveable feast depending on freshwater flows from the west and tides from the east.

Going south to north on the west side of the bridge, you’ll see herons, swans with waterlilies, crows.

And on east side, going north to south, there are black back gulls, or albatrosses, Canada and other kinds of geese.

And here are a few images. I urge you to lean carefully over the parapet next time you find yourself on the bridge. It really is a delightful sight.

This video gives a few more glimpses of the birds: Secrets of Blackfriars Bridge - YouTube

Michelle Lovric’s website is www.michellelovric.com

http://the-history-girls.blogspot.com/2025/05/birds-of-blackfriars-michelle-lovric.html

frockflicks_feed

Posted by The Frock Flicks Team

https://frockflicks.com/summer-repeat-rome/

https://frockflicks.com/?p=148351

The Frock Flicks team is taking time off to start the summer, so we’re repeating

https://frockflicks.com/summer-repeat-rome/

https://frockflicks.com/?p=148351

longficmod posting in

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 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 )

longficmod posting in

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:

Thanks for checking!

polyrecsdaily_feed

https://polyrecsdaily.tumblr.com/post/784828445336256512

All the Things (Alias):

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

https://polyrecsdaily.tumblr.com/post/784828445336256512

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

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

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) )