netgirl_y2k | Reading

I was rewatching Avengers: Infinity War and it, again, struck me how bloody hypocritical Steve's "we don't trade lives" line(s) is. Friend. Pal. Bro. My man. Do you really think no Wakandan is gonna die fighting Thanos' armies. Like. Get a fucking grip, omg.

settiai

Quiet Moments (1825 words) by Settiai
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dragon Age - All Media Types
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Solas/Male Trevelyan (Dragon Age), background Cullen Rutherford/Male Trevelyan
Characters: Male Trevelyan (Dragon Age), Solas (Dragon Age)
Additional Tags: Arlathan Exchange (Dragon Age), Formerly Tranquil Inquisitor (Dragon Age), Hurt/Comfort, Lyrium Addiction, Lyrium Withdrawal, One Shot, Queerplatonic Relationships, Slice of Life, Trans Inquisitor (Dragon Age), Trans Male Inquisitor (Dragon Age)
Summary: Connor Trevelyan hadn't expected anyone to join him on the battlements in the middle of the night.

Current Mood: creative

settiai

A Study in Worth (1428 words) by Settiai
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dragon Age II, Dragon Age - All Media Types
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Anders/Fenris (Dragon Age)
Characters: Anders (Dragon Age), Fenris (Dragon Age)
Additional Tags: Arlathan Exchange (Dragon Age), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Mental Health Issues, One Shot, Post-Dragon Age II, Pre-Dragon Age: Inquisition
Summary: It was blatantly obvious that Anders was spiraling again.

Current Mood: accomplished

spiralsheep

- Bee log: 2 June, rescued a de-powered female worker Red-tailed Bumblebee, Bombus lapidarius, from inside a library by holding it in my bare hands while it vibrated vigorous warning buzzing. Then, when I put my hand next to lavender flowers outside, the bee grabbed a flower to drink the nectar but wouldn't let go of my hand (probably because my body temperature was warmer than the air temperature). Re-powered bee eventually transferred to the plant before flying away, but not before a librarian had appeared to ascertain why I'd set off the alarms by carrying a tagged book through the detector gates. Librarian was very sympathetic to the bee and wanted to know which book it was "reading".

- Birb log: 27 May, 11+ jackdaws and very low-bowing courting male Wood Pigeon (a few days previously I suspected a Wood pigeon had been taken by a bird of prey but there are 5+ today).
3-5 June, latest I've seen a Goldfinch stripping last year's Teasel heads for seed.
8 June, by behaviour I'd say I've seen at least one juvenile Dunnock and one Blackbird this last week but neither was in pre-adult plummage.

- Citizen science: still biologging &c.

rionaleonhart

Back to The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy! I played as far as the game would let me on the Mystery route, and now... well, I'm not sure what route I'm on now, but I can tell you that it contains the line 'I'll just have to make some counterfeit panties!'

( Notes on The Hundred Line. )

I'd seen it said that this game's script was long enough to fill sixty novels, which seemed implausible, so I investigated.

Riona: Yeah, I think that's an exaggeration, or at least they'd have to be short novels. Six million Japanese characters is apparently... maybe two point five or three million English words? It's probably more like thirty novels, if we're looking at average novel length. Five or six times the length of The Lord of the Rings.
Tem: Oh, God, we'll be here forever. We're stuck in a time loop.
Riona: I always knew this would happen.
Tem, simultaneously: We were always going to end up here.

I can't believe The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy exists. The scale of it just does not feel like anything that would be created with commercial intent. It's a passion project; it's an Umineko, it's a Homestuck. Any sane studio would have stopped at the first route or two. But somehow here this game is, in all its sprawling, ridiculous glory.

As if the game weren't vast enough already, Kodaka has said he wants to add more routes, possibly consulting the fans on what they want to see.

I think we should all petition him to make my orgy fic canon. I think that would be right up his street.

thawrecka

I've now watched to the end of episode 26 of Blossom. I could finish it this weekend, if I so choose. I appreciated that they made the terrible stepmother more complicated, sympathic and interesting (though no less terrible). I feel like the main male character is kind of terrible, and actually only kept in check by the female lead, though I'm probably not supposed to feel that way 🤣 But I find them kind of cute and appeallingly functional. Whenever he admires her strategies I'm charmed by it.

I went to see Detective Kien: The Headless Horror (2025) -- a Vietnamese somewhat supernatural historical detective thriller -- at a cinema one suburb over last night. The film was fine, basically about as 3 out of 5 stars as you can get. I liked it well enough. It's sufficient to the job. I was neither wowed nor put off. A lot of the detecting is about getting gossipy landed gentry to spill all the beans, so it's not on the Sherlock-y end of the scale (which I appreciate, tbh). I appreciated the flirtation between the two main characters was a flirtation between people who are not young. There's a subplot with arranged marriage drama with face-slapping and a whole thing with people hallucinating (or maybe not) a monster. Nice outfits and hairstyles; I don't know enough about Vietnam to say whether or not they're historically accurate, but they're visually appealing, and they signalled things like class status & etc. at a glance. I suspect this film is funnier if you speak Vietnamese, given moments when people laughed. There was a bit where red dirt was a clue, and the characters instantly assumed it was dirt that got blood soaked into it, but because I grew up in a place where the dirt everywhere is red I was surprised.

What I didn't like was people coming in late and walking in front of the subtitles. This always drives me crazy! And there were people using their phones during the movie. I guess this is often how the movie-going experience is now (though it depends on the film, I think? If it's an art film aimed at older audiences I don't often have this issue), but it's very annoying.

Also, the particular Hoyts I went to see this at renovated so that buying food and picking up food seem to be in completely different areas now and it was weirdly unclear which you're supposed to do first. That and it being at a shopping centre at night, so I missed my tram when I got out in the rainy dark, and then had to wait 20 minutes for an uber... I don't regret going out to see the film (even if it was just fine, I still feel enriched by leaving the house and seeing a new thing, and it's nice to add another country to my list of 2025 films), even if I was beset by annoyances.

renay posting in

ladybusiness

We're counting down until mid-year!

Myy May TBR turned out to be more of a suggestion.

The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo
Loud: Accept Nothing Less Than the Life you Deserve by Drew Afualo
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky

I read What Moves the Dead because I managed to read What Feasts at Night. And although I didn't get to The Brides of High Hill, I did reread The Empress of Salt and Fortune and grab When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain on my way to it. :D

( Read more... )

settiai

I'm still not feeling particularly great, but my brain has at least stopped spiraling quite as badly. So that's something at least. I'm still definitely worried about covering upcoming bills, but it doesn't feel as completely impossible as it did when I made my last post.

If you reached out, thank you very much, and I want you to know that it really did help a lot. 💕

I'm not quite at a point brain-wise where I think that I can send out replies to people without being completely overwhelmed, and - while I'm not going to disable comments on this post like I did earlier - I probably won't be replying to any of them at least for the time being. I'm at a point where human interaction is definitely difficult right now, especially since I need to save up any spoons I can for work on Monday as I'm in the office that day.

After I made my post this afternoon, I got offline for several hours. I forced myself to clean the hotel room before buzzing my hair, taking a shower, bleaching my roots, and putting some dye in my hair to re-up the orange. Honestly, it wasn't much in the grand scheme of things, but it at least helped some.

And then I tried to go to bed early, although that clearly didn't work out very well considering it's a little after midnight and I've given up and am back on the computer. As is often the case when I go to bed too early, my body decided it was intended to be a nap rather than proper sleep, so I'm wide awake again and probably will remain so until at least 3am now.

Still, my spoons continue to be very much in the negative, but I at least feel more like a human being than I did earlier. One step at a time, I suppose?

Current Mood: exhausted

eratoschild posting in

fancake

Fandom: Trails of Cold Steel
Pairings/Characters:
Laura S. Arseid/Duvalie, Ines/Ennea, Victor S. Arseid/McBurn
appearances by other assorted Cold Steel characters and hints of other ships Rating: M
Length: 22442 words
Creator Links: Rosie_Rues
Theme:
Grief/Mourning, Dreamsharing, Recovery, Enemies to Lovers, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, changing roles in life, loss of limb
Summary: With the Great Twilight over, Duvalie follows Laura home to Legram. She's not entirely sure why she's here, or when she's going to leave, but she can't bring herself to regret her choice.

Meanwhile, Victor's dreaming of the only man in the universe still willing to offer him a challenge...

Reccer's Notes: While I have read this fic several times, the most recent was some time ago, I always remember it as being roughly half of one ship and half of another- I note this here because one of those ships is M/M. In my rereading, I see the balance is more 2/3 to 1/3, with the bulk of it being the theme-compliant Laura/Duvalie, who begins as something of a lost and reluctant guest in Laura's home in the wake of the loss of the woman who saved her. The emotional metamorphosis of Duvalie's canonical hostility towards Laura- already very much blunted as the story opens, turn to friendship and later towards attraction is an absolute treasure. There are many smaller moments of many relationships of varying sorts between her and otter female characters throughout the story, some of which absolutely beg for stories of their own.

The M/M ships is Victor/McBurn, and they are a prominent part of the story- really a story occurring in parallel, but separately- until it suddenly isn't. While I don't want to dwell on them in this post as they are not germane to the theme, it bears mentioning that they are there in case they would turn anyone off from reading. But I will say that their development is quite astounding, a sword master who has lost an arm, a god who has lost his world and any connection to it and what they become to each other.

This fic deals with grief in many forms, over many different kinds of loss, from loss of friends, comrades in arms, loss of a limb, loss of connection to oneself and an entire world. It's all very sensitively written, and even the absolutely fantastical loss of a god from another dimension with his entire world somehow becomes much less fantastical than one might expect.

There are also themes of many different changes in life that come with time passing and with dealing with these griefs. Oh, and the very cracky-sounding, but utterly sincerely dealt with coping with the shock of learning that your father is banging the demon god from another dimension. (that needs to be a tag, ok)

This is just one of my favorite ever fics, by one of my favorite authors.
Fanwork Links: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45897169

dr_zook

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: accomplished

mific posting in

fancake

Fandom: Taskmaster (series 16)
Characters/Pairings: Sue Perkins/Susan Wokoma
Rating: Gen
Length: 00:02:06
Content Notes: no archive warnings apply, and there are no video-specific warnings.
Creator Links: thingswithwings on AO3
Themes: Female relationships, Friendship, Team, Humor

Summary: If you're lost, you can look, and you will find me.

Reccer's Notes: This is gorgeous and hilarious as the Sues stumble about carrying out the endless ridiculous tasks, laughing, triumphant, and always there for each other.

Fanwork Links: Team of Sue

settiai

Watch on YouTube

One of my friends helped design this game! Elliot, who I've been playing D&D with since 2017, has been working on a top secret project for several years now, and he finally got to admit that this was it because the trailer dropped this afternoon.

Honestly, it looks like a lot of fun. And unlike Mario Party, it's not system locked so you and anyone you're playing with can be on different devices. Considering the huge number of game assets that he designed? I'm so very proud of him.

Current Mood: cheerful

spiralsheep

- Current reading quote: "My phrenologist has advised me to get more excitement in life, for the sake of my health".

- Friday Five with questions to warm the cockles of USian market researchers....

1. Have you ever been to summer camp?
No, we didn't have US style summer camps. Going camping (in tents or less often huts) for a weekend or even a whole week (!) with the Scouts / Guides &c used to be a relatively common childhood experience in the UK, and some schools went Youth Hostelling or to outdoor centres (usually owned by local councils before they were mostly privatised) for loosely geography/biology themed field study trips, but I never did. Specialised summer schools for formal study were uncommon, although older posher kids might attend a week or two for music or languages or whatever posh kids do when their parents want rid of them and boarding schools are on hols. Brits also used to have a lot of language student exchange trips with Europe usually organised by secondary schools.

2. Have you ever made a s'more?
I've seen them in USian movies and they appeared to be rubbery pink sugar melted over dry crumbly "cookie" sugar, thus removing the only joy of campfire toasting which is crunchiness. Why would anyone want to do that? I can only assume the level of advertising to children that would be seen as brainwashing anywhere else.

3. Have you ever slept under the stars (no tent/tarp)?
Yes, and so did all the rural kids I grew up with and my entire early adult friend group, and all the women's group members I knew, and all the greens and neopagans I knew (and probably most of the leftists at some point). Why wouldn't anyone living in a temperate climate, with predictable meteor showers &c, want to sleep out? I dislike camping though because it's too much faff for no reward: minimalist bivi bag or middle-aged mo-ho for me, ta.

4. Have you ever had a member of the opposite sex sleep over at your house?
Ah, yes, the two sexes, and the owning of houses. Definitely another question aimed at my demographic, lmao.

5. What type of bed do you have (queen, twin, bunk, etc.)?
A comfy one, obv. Primarily cotton sheets / pillow cases (pillow case can be refrigerated in summer) and duvet with blanket over in winter. And when I was very ill a few years ago I swapped my hot water bottle for an electric heat pad at the foot end of my bed. [insert emoticon of comfy smugness here]

6. Have you had your bumps "read" by a phrenologist?
/jk, that's not a FF question. Have you though? I bet you have! You look like the type!! I can tell from the shape of your head!!1!! (I was persuaded to have a Kirlian photo of myself taken once. I refused to pay extra for a "reading" but the "psychic" insisted on persuing me to the door while earnestly explaining that I had a strong secondary female presence in my "aura" that was watching over me, lmao.)

rachelmanija

This sequel to one of my favorite books of last year, a young adult post-apocalypse novel with a lovely slow-burn gay romance, fell victim to a trope I basically never like: the sequel to a romance that starts out by breaking up the main couple or pitting them against each other. It may be realistic but I hate it. If the main thing I liked about the first book was the main couple's dynamic - and if I'm reading the sequel, that's definitely the case - then I'm never going to like a sequel where their dynamic is missing or turns negative. I'm not saying they can't have conflict, but they shouldn't have so much conflict that there's nothing left of the relationship I loved in the first place.

This book starts out with Jamison and Andrew semi-broken up and not speaking to each other or walking on eggshells around each other, because Andrew wants to stay in the nice post-apocalyptic community they found and Jamison wants to return to their cabin and live alone there with Andrew. Every character around them remarks on this and how they need to just talk to each other. Eventually they talk to each other, but it resolves nothing and they go on being weird about each other and mourning the loss of their old relationship. ME TOO.

Then half the community's children die in a hurricane, and it's STILL all about them awkwardly not talking to each other and being depressed. I checked Goodreads, saw that they don't make up till the end, and gave up.

The first book is still great! It didn't need a sequel, though I would have enjoyed their further adventures if it had continued the relationship I loved in the first book. I did not sign up for random dead kids and interminable random sulking.

littlerhymes

Is - Joan Aiken
Cold Shoulder Road - Joan Aiken
The Castle of Llyr - Lloyd Alexander
Taran Wanderer - Lloyd Alexander
The High King - Lloyd Alexander
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup - John Carreyrou
Chinese Parents Don't Say I Love You - Candice Chung
Heaven Official's Blessing 6, 7 and 8 - Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
Saga 12 - Fiona Staples and Brian K. Vaughan
Before the Coffee Gets Cold - Toshikazu Kawaguchi, transl. Geoffrey Trousselot
Warlight - Michael Ondaatje
Batman: Wayne Family Adventures 1 - CRC Payne, Starbite

( books and comics )

rionaleonhart

My gaming partner Tem has been away for a few days, so I've been taking an enforced break from ludicrous child soldier simulator The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy.

I was itching for something else to play in the meantime, so I've picked up Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I'm having a really good time with it!

The central concept of Clair Obscur is so interesting. This is the main reason I took an interest in this game; I looked up the central premise and went, 'Huh, that's really unusual and fascinating.' The fact that a lot of people I follow on Dreamwidth are playing and enjoying it definitely helped to recommend it! But just learning the premise was the first thing that tempted me to play this game.

I'll pop the premise behind a short cut, just in case anyone wants to go into this game knowing nothing at all. This cut only contains the basic concept of the game; there's a more spoilery cut further down the post.

( The premise of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. )

I was a little nervous about the battle system, but I'm enjoying it! It's challenging - more than once I've had my party wiped out during a regular enemy encounter - but I'm having fun. I tend not to like games that really expect you to be able to parry with precise timing, but it turns out that's a demand I'm a lot more comfortable with in a turn-based battle system; I only have to focus on parrying during the enemy's turn, rather than having to worry about it all the time.

The scenery is gorgeous. I love how weird and dreamlike the landscapes are. Incredible soundtrack, too.

Major spoilers below the cut! I've just reached the Forgotten Battlefield.

( Spoilers for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. )

As a final note: Clair Obscur is perhaps the Frenchest game I've ever played, which is saying something, given that I've played Assassin's Creed: Unity.

spiralsheep

- To Read shelves, 72 on 1 June, which is down from 90 on 1 Jan 2025.

- Reading: 63 books to 5 June 2025.

56. Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries, by Heather Fawcett, 2023, fantasy romance (het), 4/5.
I liked the readable prose, presented mostly as diary entries, and especially the protagonist, but all the she-forgot-herself and voila she's a queen now with a wannabe prince charming waiting to rescue her from her unwanted king was tedious to me. However the author does emphasise, as do traditional folk and fairy tales, that aristocracy is arbitrary, capricious, and cruel, which took the edge off my discontent, lol. I especially enjoyed Fawcett's characterisation of the "common" fae "Poe" who lived in a tree by a hot spring and exchanged gift-for-gift with humans.

( Unnecessary nitpicking which in no way spoiled my enjoyment. )

57. Never Anyone but You, by Rupert Thomson, 2018, novel historical (lgbt+), 4/5.
A historical novel about Lucie Schwob (Claude Cahun) and Suzanne Malherbe (Marcel Moore) which managed to combine the historical and the novel aspects very well.
Warning for the Second World War, plus suicides, and anorexia.

Quote: But they realised they didn't have anything we wanted, and they took our self-sufficiency as a kind of rejection, or even as an expression of contempt. If money, beauty and fame aren't coveted by the people who don't have them, they lose their value for the people who do.

59. Bad Influence, by C.J. Wray, 2025, technically a crime novel, 3.5/5.
If this was What Three Words it'd be heartwarming.popular.tropes.
Warning for spoilery but exceedingly obvious trope wrt elderly protagonists.

60. Priest Turned Therapist Treats Fear of God, by Tony Hoagland, 2019, poetry, 3.5/5.
Specifically post-2016 dissatisfactions from Hoagland, to add to his usual satirical tendencies.

61. God on the Rocks, by Jane Gardam, 1978, literary slice-of-life novel, 4.5/5.
Half a point too Booker for me. :D

62. Oliver VII, by Antal Szerb (translation from Hungarian by Len Rix), 1942, ruritanian farce, 3/5.
I blame James Davis Nicoll. :-)

settiai

In tonight's game, ( the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.

Current Mood: tired

spiralsheep

Aurora Australis readalong 7 / 10, Erebus by Nemo (Ernest Shackleton), post for comment, reaction, discussion, fanworks, links, and whatever obliquely related matters your heart desires. You can join the readalong at any time or skip sections or go back to earlier posts. It's all good. :-)

Text of the poem Erebus by Nemo (Ernest Shackleton):
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Aurora_Australis/Erubus

Readalong intro and reaction post links:
https://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/662515.html

Reminder for next week, An Ancient Manuscript by Shellback (Frank Wild):
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Aurora_Australis/An_Ancient_Manuscript

( Links, vocabulary, quotes, and brief commentary )

suncani

I've been struggling to find cooking appealing or fun much to my annoyance. However on Monday I had both the energy and the enthusiasm to make chicken and mushroom risotto from scratch for dinner. While the thought of cooking still feels more of a chore and less of a joy, i didn't hate it so I think I'm going to try and get the ingredients for a new recipe to cook at the weekend and see what happens.

I'm on the lookout for new recipes so recommendations for your favourite recipe or go-to when you're in a cooking slump would be appreciated.

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netgirl_y2k

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Page Summary

dhampyresa - "We don't trade lives" sure, man
settiai - Fic: Quiet Moments (Dragon Age)
settiai - Fic: A Study in Worth (Dragon Age)
spiralsheep - In which there are 52 times Our Heroine improves her habitat (hopefully), week 23
rionaleonhart - Thank You Very Macho.
thawrecka - (no subject)
renay in ladybusiness - Let's Get Literate! June 2025 Hopefuls
settiai - . . .
eratoschild in fancake - Trails of Cold Steel: Moon Door IV: Beyond
dr_zook - [fic] - Wild Adapter: Soaked in Fire Two Paths Collide
mific in fancake - Taskmaster: Team of Sue by thingswithwings
settiai - LEGO Party!
spiralsheep - In which there are phrenologists and campness
rachelmanija - The Only Light Left Burning, by Erik J. Brown: DNF
littlerhymes - May reading
rionaleonhart - We Continue.
spiralsheep - In which I read therefore I am
settiai - Aurendor D&D: Summary for 6/4 Game
spiralsheep - Aurora Australis readalong 7 / 10, Erebus
suncani - Cooking

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