pronker: barnabas and angelique vibing (Default)
[personal profile] pronker posting in [community profile] fancake
Fandom: Star Wars
Pairings/Characters: Kleya Marki & Luthen Rael from the Andor series
Rating: K
Length: 7,108
Creator Links: FFN Profile
Theme: Working Together

Summary: He was never meant to survive. So why is she risking so much to save the man who killed her family?

Reccer's Notes: Kleya does her duty, as does Luthen, in aid of the rebellion. When their wishes and deeds clash, it takes forever and a day to reach an equilibrium. I especially enjoyed the scenario of two rebels diminishing status once their seminal work concludes, because how do they fit in now? And do they want to? Fine characterization, and a what-if that we hope happens, in some other timeline, perhaps.

Fanwork Link: Questionable Provenance

the future was wide open

Jul. 31st, 2025 08:28 pm
musesfool: Yelena Belova in her vest of many pockets (it has pockets!)
[personal profile] musesfool
I spent most of the day glued to trade deadline updates - the Mets did pretty well. I would say they got 90% of what they needed. I would have loved for them to get a top of the rotation starter in addition to 3 excellent relievers, but I guess the price was too high.

I also had to complete a 90 minute cybersecurity training which was incredibly boring and repetitive, but if it finally gets our CEO or our AP department to recognize fake invoices as phishing emails, I guess it's worth it.

***

I finally watched Thunderbolts and I enjoyed it, mostly because of Yelena. She is so great! I'll never stop being mad about what they did to Natasha in Endgame, but at least we got Yelena out of the fun but way too late Black Widow movie. She is fantastic! I also enjoyed Ava Starr. Hannah John-Kamen needs to be in more things. I could have done without Walker, but whatever. He's nothing.

***

Here's the July recs update:

[personal profile] unfitforsociety has been updated for July 2025 with 16 recs in 3 fandoms:

13 Batfamily
2 Percy Jackson/Batfamily crossovers
1 Lord of the Rings

***

It's a red-letter day...

Jul. 31st, 2025 01:18 pm
halfshellvenus: (Default)
[personal profile] halfshellvenus
HalfshellHusband is off getting his pacemaker replaced, which means he's outlived it! Cause for celebration. It's there mainly as a defibrillator, since he had a blackout about 10 years ago that we've never known the cause of. Probably low blood pressure, but better safe than sorry.

Our son finished taking the California Bar Exam yesterday. Boy, is he glad to be through with that. Ideally forever, though we won't know until early November. But for now... massive brain purge! And sleeping. So much sleeping.

Now I'm trying to plan a vacation for August for the 3 of us, before our son starts work in September. Running into some resistance from The Boy, because he's reluctant to leave the cat with a sitter for very long. Which I don't think is ideal, either, but this will be his last hurrah, and the cat will survive. Even with the enticement of Hawaii, it'll be an uphill battle. \o?

For my Idol story this week, I used a fairytale setting with the chance to skewer some of the weirdnesses fairy tales always seem to contain. In particular, there was a reference to Froggie Went A' Courtin', which I know as a song but it's older than that. Obviously, Bob Dylan's version is not the one I'm familiar with, but the lyrics match. Can't remember the original context, though. I know we had a record album that had some children's songs on it, so it might have been on there? The only one I definitely remember was along the lines of "Marisu, Marisu, cook some pierogies." Have I mentioned lately how repetitive children's songs tend to be?

About to go biking on another hot day. There was a reprieve last week (highs only in the low to upper 80s!), but it came with a lot of wind. This week? I'm grateful for the days that are ONLY in the low 90s. Summer in Sacramento--ugh.

SGA: The Killing Frost by Sholio

Jul. 31st, 2025 03:53 pm
mific: (Shep - oh crap)
[personal profile] mific posting in [community profile] fancake
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Stephen Caldwell, Elizabeth Weir, Laura Cadman, Radek Zelenka, Lindsay Novak - the usual Daedalus and Atlantis suspects.
Rating: Teen
Length: 100,449
Content Notes: Contains descriptions of serious injuries, animal attacks, extreme environmental conditions, violence, murder. No AO3 warnings apply.
Creator Links: Sholio on AO3, Sholio's old SGA website
Themes: Working together, Action/adventure, Competence, Hurt/comfort, Novel-length, Epic work, Genfic, Worldbuilding

Summary: When a scientific mission goes wrong, the Daedalus crashes on an ice planet along with Atlantis's top scientists and a ruthless saboteur. Will rescue come before injuries and the elements take their toll? Roughly season two era.

Reccer's Notes: This is a gripping, full-blown novel. The Daedalus crash-lands on a Gateless, uninhabited, icy planet while carrying a number of Atlantis personnel (Rodney, Radek, Elizabeth and Cadman), while back on Atlantis, realising something's gone badly wrong, John, Simpson, Carson, Lorne, et al try frantically to locate them, then to reach them by puddlejumper. It's a thriller about surviving both a disastrous crash and the freezing, inhospitable planet, plus searching for the saboteur or saboteurs who caused the crash. There's tons of detail about how the two groups separately work together to survive, and to find and reach the crashed ship, and then once the relief party arrives their troubles aren't over, with the saboteur still working against them and the logistics of only having puddlejumpers to perform a complex rescue. Sholio weaves it all together masterfully and it's an extremely good read with excellent worldbuilding, better than most pro thrillers. Highly recommended.

Fanwork Links: The Killing Frost on AO3, or here

a little something to make me sweeter

Jul. 30th, 2025 06:55 pm
musesfool: orange slices (orange you glad)
[personal profile] musesfool
I had to go into the office yesterday (for the first time since March! March!!!) and it has wiped me out. I mean, "had to" in the sense that my boss wanted to take us out for lunch since in addition to my birthday in July, 2 other team members had birthdays in late June. We made a reservation at a restaurant about a block and a half from the office, which was great since it was so hot! But not great because the restaurant...didn't exist? There was a sign, but nothing inside the building and the phone had been disconnected. Even though we had made a reservation!

So we stood there for a while in the heat, trying to figure out where else we could go, and I was like, "Pepolino is 2 blocks away, we could go there!" And thankfully, they still existed and were open and had a table for 5 available right underneath the air conditioner, so lunch was lovely after a rough start.

I didn't get a whole lot of work done, but I did have one or two quick conversations of the sort that is easiest in the office since you don't have to set up time - you just run into someone in the hall and chat. Still, not worth having to get up an hour earlier and spend 2 hours a day commuting.

(Also, I ran into oldboss3 and she was like, "wow I haven't seen you in so long! It's so good to see you! Can you send an email for me???" And I was just like, "...I think it's best if Assistant L sends the email, since she will be able to answer any questions received in response and I won't." *shudders* Dodged that one.)

Since I knew I was going to be in the city, I arranged to have dinner with [personal profile] innie_darling and [livejournal.com profile] tenaciousmetoo, which was also lovely!

And then I came home and even though I'd set the air conditioner to go on about an hour before I knew I'd arrive home, my apartment was still unpleasantly warm. Bleh. Took my bedroom some time to drop in temperature too, which is the real key to sleeping well, I think, at least for me. So I didn't have a great night of sleep. But I probably don't have to go back into the office until late September, so I guess it's okay. *g*

*

Breaking the Mold

Jul. 30th, 2025 02:07 pm
yourlibrarian: FemaleHeroes-liviapenn (OTH-FemaleHeroes-liviapenn)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian
1) When person after person said they watched Penguin even when it was uncomfortable to keep going with it, it sounded rather familiar. I saw it with The Wire and especially with S2 of Andor. These were stories exploring the failures of systems, their purposes sabotaged by failing to account for personal agendas and human nature.

To me, Penguin and Andor share other similarities of the "it's so well written I had to see more" variety. Both are shows set within a franchise that do not feature the main features of that franchise, and which deal with the ruthlessness of societies in recognizable and everyday ways. Read more... )

2) Finished watching Girls on the Bus. It was apparently meant to go on for another season though I think it ended in a good enough place. Shame though as it really came together as a story of four different women in the same professional arena and the political angles are very familiar. Girls on the Bus is about female political reporters following a presidential campaign and has a nice diversity of characters. It's also interesting to pick up details from actual candidate reporting. Read more... )

3) In movies, I watched Fahrenheit 451 because I never read the book. Had Michael B. Jordan not starred I don't know as I could have gotten through half of it. Depressingly topical yet also doesn't make a lot of sense, since they apparently tried to update it to account for current events. Read more... )

Poll #33445 Kudos Footer-532
This poll is anonymous.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 3

Want to leave a Kudos?

View Answers

Kudos!
3 (100.0%)



RIP Tom Lehrer

Jul. 27th, 2025 05:16 pm
marinarusalka: (phryne drinking)
[personal profile] marinarusalka
May his memory be a (hilarious and dubiously appropriate) blessing.

and it's one and two

Jul. 27th, 2025 07:28 pm
musesfool: The Reyes family, hugging (the family that kicks ass together)
[personal profile] musesfool
I keep intending to post and then forgetting to do so. Nothing much is going on. I pan-fried a steak for dinner tonight and it was delicious but it also reminded me why I do it so infrequently - the smoke condition was intense and ongoing despite 2 fans going and the smell is going to linger. But I ate it with a nice arugula salad and it was good.

Here's a couple of links I found interesting recently:

- Sydney’s Choice How The Bear cooked up season four’s best episode.

- After ‘iconic’ Rangers tenure, Chris Kreider opens up about New York departure: 1-on-1 (do not read the comments)

- Why Your Team Sucks: New York Giants - this is an annual event (for every NFL team) and remains hilarious because in the case of the Giants, it's all sad but true. On this one, the comments are great.

*

LJ Idol: Wheel of Chaos: "Cursecraft"

Jul. 27th, 2025 12:25 pm
halfshellvenus: (Default)
[personal profile] halfshellvenus
Cursecraft
Idol Wheel of Chaos | Week 5 | 1605 words
Toi toi toi (warding off bad luck)

x-x-x-x-x

Helga McTwittle was a hag, and proud of it. She kept her hair long and stringy, and she rubbed toads on her face to enhance her warts. She kept her fingernails gray and ragged, and she honed her screeches and cackles with the diligence of a singer practicing her scales.

She wasn't as powerful as her former schoolmate, the Evil Queen, but that was all right. Helga had a good business doling out curses and enchantments for money.

She lived in a house made of cookies and candy, which she used to entice little children. Once she had them, Helga made them clean her house. Then she laid a forgetting spell on them before releasing them back into the forest. It required more effort than most hags would find reasonable, but Helga hated housework, and little children were able to get to the small spaces that Helga (who frequently sampled her own house) could not.

She once tried to change a rat into a tiny person for cleaning purposes, but she wound up with a large rat with human hands, which was disgusting even to Helga.

Read more... )

If you enjoyed this story, please vote for it along with any of your other favorites here.

Sigil of Odium 109

Jul. 26th, 2025 09:38 am
darkemeralds: A round magical sigil of mysterious meaning, in bright colors with black outlines. A pen nib is suggested by the intersection of the cryptic forms. (Default)
[personal profile] darkemeralds
The sigil of odium containing fire, earth, air and water symbols around an all-seeing eye.
We, the ordinary people,
Call on the Power of the good green earth,
Power of wind and storms,
Power of flowing waters,
Power of the hearthfire,
To hear us.

We are beset by self-crowned monsters
Of greed and hubris, of evil stupidity,
And it is our will
That those monsters feel our odium,
Our righteous hatred
Of their inhuman designs.

You know who they are.
You know what they mean to do.
You know that they do not know you, O Great Powers.

So hate them with us!
They are rotting from their radioactive core
And burning the world with it.

We are nothing to them.
They do not think of us at all.
They simply want us to hate each other.
BUT WE HATE THEM.
And our plea to you is simple:
Shut them down.

Crack the foundations of their inhuman edifice with our deep-rooted hate.
Scour away their plans with the whirlwind of our rage.
Let their greed and lust burn them up inside.
Wash them away in the noisy flood of our saying no:
Four times, no.
Throw sand in the gears of their evil machine
So that its own soulless grinding destroys it.

Let them end in ignominy
Before this fateful year is out.
Let their names be trampled in the dust of history's forgetting.
Let the last thing they hear be our ridicule.
Let the last thing they see be us, the ordinary people,
Walking away in scorn,
As the molten, impenetrable glass of our odium
Encases their poison,
And closes around them,
Sealing them in with their own evil for a thousand years.

It is our will that the Great Universal Powers hear us.
Direct our hate.
Destroy these monsters and their evil plans.
VITRIFY THEM.

And in this way let us, the ordinary people,
Live and love and thrive together on the good green earth,
In your sacred names.
So say we all. So mote it be.


Background: On the Big River Wimal (the Columbia), upstream of Portland by a couple hundred miles, is the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, where fissile materials and radioactive waste are held. Engineers have devised a plan to safely store the materials for a thousand years by encasing them in large volumes of molten glass, which, when it cools, is so chaotically organized at the molecular level that it is impenetrable to radiation.

The Hanford vitrification project is one of the programs being cut from the US government.
mific: (Teyla serious)
[personal profile] mific posting in [community profile] fancake
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: Teyla Emmagan, John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Ronon Dex
Rating: Gen
Length: 1934
Creator Links: Punk on AO3, DesireeArmfeldt on AO3, DesireeArmfeldt on Audiofic Archive
Themes: Working together, Teams, Friendship

Summary: The sun is high overhead, the sky a brilliant, cloudless blue.

Reccer's Notes: This is told from Teyla's POV, on a somewhat frustrating off-world mission where John and Rodney are being particularly dense and snarky. Luckily, Ronon's there to unexpectedly save the day! I especially love the strong sense of place and of the natural world in the story.

Fanwork Links: A Hundred Hundred Bolts of Satin on AO3, and the podfic read by DesireeArmfeldt

Profile

twasadark: (Default)
twasadark

April 2021

S M T W T F S
    123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930 

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags