wait wait wait

Aug. 14th, 2025 10:25 pm
lannamichaels: Astronaut Dale Gardner holds up For Sale sign after EVA. (Default)
[personal profile] lannamichaels


What do you mean, Brandi Carlile and Belinda Carlisle are TWO DIFFERENT PEOPLE???? I thought Belinda Carlisle had reinvented herself and made a comeback, what do you mean it's a completely different person.

I have not been this betrayed since finding out that Carl Sandburg and Carl Sagan were different people, but at least these are still two singers. WTF.

donutsweeper: (Default)
[personal profile] donutsweeper
I created 20 things, 19 fics and one art. Highlights of my participation in battleship this year are writing the first fic in the archive for Big River and the first english fic for The Embers on AO3, and my first time writing for those as well as for Barnum, the 'His wife has filled his house with chintz...' tumblr meme and See Your Love.

Something new this year was breaking down the 'creator's choice of fandom' into a bunch of subsections which helped me really feel like I was writing for specific request and I had a lot of fun with 'creator's choice of musical' (Barnum and Big River) and there were some people who tailored their various CCOF requests specifically for things like disabled character prompts (which I jumped on to write Covert Affairs and See Your Love). Another nice change for this year was the archive warnings (Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con and Underage Sex) were part of the prompt form so it was easy to see who'd opted into what so I'd know how to tailor things to people's requests better.

Big River - Miller/Hauptman
- Winding Your Way Summary: The river winds its way, unabated. (300 words, rated G, river pov ficlet for my favorite musical)

Barnum - Coleman/Stewart/Bramble
- Pulling the Wool Over the Prince of Humbug. Summary: There might be a sure-as-shooting sucker born a minute, but Charity was definitely born the minute in between. (444 words, rated G, I always loved how Charity canonically hoodwinked Barnum.) There's an amazing version of Barnum on youtube here, originally broadcast by the BBC in '86 starring Michael Crawford and has some delightful live recording flubs.

Charmed:
- The Same Stars, the Same Window, a Different World. Summary: Chris dies. And then he lives. (1,971 words, rated T- how many times has Chris' "death" in s6 and what happened next been written? Well, here's one more!)
- watching from the sidelines while being in the game Summary: Sometimes the contradictions were just too hard to bear. (662 words, rated G - Chris (pre his identity being revealed angst)

Covert Affairs:
- Coffee and Camaraderie. Summary: A bit of coffee and a lot of camaraderie makes the day a bit better. (400 words, rated G, just some nice Auggie and Annie banter)

DMBJ:
- A Flower, Not in the Hand nor in the Bush. Summary: As far as kidnappings went, Xie Yuchen rated this one two out of ten stars. (350 words, rated T, Heihua)
- A Touch of Frost in the Air Summary: It was a night like many others and a conversation they'd had before.(600 words, rated T, Heihua post-movie and Xiazi's eye issues)
- Paying for a Moment's Inattention. Summary: Everything had been going so well which was never a good sign. (1511 words, rated T, Heihua and a tomb raid that goes awry)
- An Inconvenience About to be Averted. Summary: It was only a slight hiccup to the evening's plans. (323 words, rated G, Pangzi just wants to make dinner for his boys)
- Oh for Those Lazy Days. Summary: Retirement suited Wang Pangzi. (300 words, rated M, lazy days (in bed) for the Iron Triangle)

余烬之上 | The Embers (TV)
- Toward the Dead, Into the Light. Summary: Whenever Liao Siyuan had needed his brother, Zhibai had always been there for him. Even Zhibai's death didn't stop that. (449 words, canonical character death, weird and trippy like the start of the show)

His wife has filled his house with chintz - jjbang8 (Photograph)
- Midweek Matinee. Summary: It's the tennis instructor this time. An excellent choice, if she does say so herself. (429 words, rated E, a combination of voyeurism and a twist on the just who is keeping it real here)

The Magnificent Seven (TV)
- The Invisible Enemy. Summary:There were some enemies that you couldn't win against. no matter how good a fighter you were. (700 words, rated T for Period-Typical Homophobia, Vin standing up for himself)

MDZS:
- fraught and frightful. Summary: An unexpected ambush, a surprising result. (1,460 words, rated M for violence - ambushing the Yiling Laozu, always a good idea)

Original Work:
- A Flame by Any Other Means Will Smoke as Sweetly. Summary: Just because Schmeckle couldn't make his own flame didn't mean he couldn't create it some other way. (513 words, rated G - a dragon and his bar mitzvah!)
- Baa Baa Battlesheep. Summary: Baa baa battlesheep, have you any battles? (art of the battleship I crocheted)

See Your Love (Taiwanese Drama)
- Music and Messes Summary: Jiang Shaoping, Yang Zixiang, and a moment in the kitchen. (320 words, rated G - just a sweet little Jiang Shaoping/Yang Zixiang moment)

Sherlock Holmes (Downey films)
- The Miscalculation. Summary: As it turned out he hadn't taken everything into consideration. (800 words, rated G, Watson whump)

Stargate Atlantis
- Those Who Stayed. Summary: For some, their time on Atlantis was brief. But for others.... (350 words, rated G, major character death - newcomers to Atlantis and those who never leave)

The Untamed
- To Embrace the New. Summary: Long ago the Burial Mounds had been a verdant place. Now, nothing thrived within its wards. Or, at least, nothing had.... (400 words, rated T, Burial Mounds POV my beloved)

As gifts, I got one ficlet for Red Devil and Heroine Su, to touch softly by treescape. Summary: The Red Devil loves as she fights—merciless and unyielding to any who stand in her way.

and one adorable art (based off some battleship lore that was happening during the game: [art] Donut Teapot - Donut Time by embraideryart (embraidery).

and two podfics made of things I'd written (both <10min):
Charmed - Prue Diligence by buries. Summary: There was someone paging through the Book of Shadows, someone who piqued Prue's interest. (fic, originally written for 2024's Yuletide is here)
The Old Guard - Food of the Ages by wilfriede0815. Summary: If Nicky was going to try to bake baklava for Andy, he was make sure he did it right. (fic, originally written for 2020's Battleship is here)

and one other thing of mine was podficced for someone else (25min):
MCU- [Podfic] The Time With The... by sisi_rambles. Summary: The five times Steve and Bucky lied about what they faced during the War and the one time they told the truth. Aka the five times they trolled the Avengers and one truth that enabled them to get away with it. (Fic, originally an avengers kink meme fill, is on AO3 here)

Podficcers are amazing, all three were done just perfectly, and I loved my other two gifts as well.

How is it August already?

Aug. 8th, 2025 10:47 am
donutsweeper: (Default)
[personal profile] donutsweeper
I threw together some Battleship recs for the last two weeks' [community profile] recthething community rec posts (mostly art but a little fic) and just remembered I should share it here too (creators will still be anon until Wednesday):
Art recs:
Carmilla
- Art: Your Sleep Demon (delightfully creepy)

DCU
- Art: Just a little more, Superman... A young Jason helps Clark to safety.(gorgeous, particularly the lighting)

Dracula
- Art: Midnight The scene after Dracula leaves Jonathan and Mina's room. (the emotions in this!)

Dredge (Video Game)
- [Art] Sunset Scene Summary: A small atmospheric piece.(absolutely beautiful, no canon knowledge needed digital art piece)

Moby Dick - Herman Melville
- [Art] The Ghost Hunter AU Summary: No-dialogue comic imagining if the events of the book were loosely adapted into a found footage horror piece centered on Ahab's quest to prove the existence of the spirit Moby-Dick. (so many details in this comic and so well done!)

Original Works
- [Art] She was a fairy This art was inspired by samiabenchaou_ on Instagram. She’s a hijabi fashion influencer. (beautiful)
- A Regency grape angel enjoying some tea with her pets (so sweet)
- Art: Madame Poire A woman wearing a pear-themed historical dress. (wonderfully detailed)
- The Fruit Heist Glorbo, Barry, and Pearry stealing fruits. (All of the teams' mascots and friends, so cute!)
- [art] Glorby Be (Manuscript art! Amazing)
- Battleship 2025: Paper Dolls (A series of paper dolls of Glorbo and others that can be cut out with clothing and whatnot to add, so neat!)
- [Art] The Tower Sumary: A mermaid is... happy to see the lighthouse keeper she's been watching. (beautiful, if slightly creepy charcoal/chalk/pastels on paper piece)
- [Art] Monster in 8B Summary: The shadows aren't cruel. (amazingly creepy)

fic recs:
Eureka/Stargate SG1 crossover
- Bugs in the System Summary: SG-1's visit to Eureka has some unexpected results. (Jack Carter and Sam Carter are cousins and amazing in this)

Leverage/DCU crossover
- They Meet Again Summary: At a charity gala, Bruce Wayne meets a beautiful woman he's run into many, many times before. (great Bruce voice and so many neat little details)

Star Trek Lower Decks
- Battlesheep Potemkin Summary: First officer's log, stardate, uh, computer, add the stardate in. The Cerritos is responding to a distress call from the USS Potemkin, an Excelsior-class starship that was exploring the Gra'pe-2025 system. Upon arrival, we found Potemkin adrift in orbit of the third planet, which is currently surrounded by an ion storm. There is no sign of the crew. However, the ship is filled with hundreds of strange mammalian life-forms. (hilarious)

The last team, Lemon, cleared their final board today and those works will go live tomorrow. I will be very interested in hearing from their team (and everyone else) when the feedback post is put up. I don't usually comment on those posts but I might this year, depending on what the mods say in the first place about how the game might change for next year (there was already mention in the discord that the tag count will drop back down to 400 from the 574 of this year which is such a relief). Without some mod changes (or at least issue acknowledgements) I'll have to think very hard about signing up again next year, which is a shame since I'm one of the very few who've done it every year but the things I love about it are starting to be outweighed but what I find stressful or outright dislike. Sigh.

Now that battleship's winding down hopefully I'll have time to tackle a few things on my to-watch and to-read lists. I would really like to get through the official Guardian translation before the Guardian-read-along finishes up but I am just not sure I'll manage it. (And then there's my poor MDL to-watch list. So long despite efforts earlier this year to work my way through it. Somehow, I keep adding to it. Too many good shows/movies out there I guess.) I also have to start thinking about Yuletide and what I'll want to nominate for it.

Crafting-wise I've been working on a blanket my daughter 'commissioned' from me (aka she bought the yarn). I'm about 3 skeins into the 7 I think it'll need for the length she wants. It's turning out nice, but will still take a while to finish. After that (or maybe during a break from that) I need to do another bread/bagel bag rug because my stack of bags is starting to get unwieldly. Not sure what I'll do with it/where I'll put it once I make it, but that's a future me problem. I also have a string bag I was designing that I ran out of crochet thread for that I need to get back to now that I've bought more. (Here's hoping my notes still make sense)

Anyway, hope all of you are doing well and August is being nice to you! :)

Notice of Worldcon Attendance

Aug. 6th, 2025 05:38 pm
queenlua: (Default)
[personal profile] queenlua
I will be at* Worldcon!

* as in, "I live here so it is trivially easy for me to be around Worldcon" haha. I do have a membership & may drop into the con itself but that's not guaranteed yet, something something PTO days

If you're following me on here there's a pretty good chance I'd get a charge out of meeting up irl; feel free to reply here (all comments screened) or shoot me a DM or send me a messenger pigeon or whatever
lannamichaels: Brachos 2a, caption: "There's a debate about that" (daf yomi)
[personal profile] lannamichaels


What images are used as avoda zarah, and can you benefit from things that have previously been used for avodah zarah? If so, what sorts of things and what needs to be done first, and who has to do them. Still a fun time!

Read more... )

Dear Shipcrossing Letter

Aug. 5th, 2025 01:22 pm
hiddencait: (Default)
[personal profile] hiddencait
Dear ShipsCrossing Writer,

You are amazing. I want to tell you that up front, because you are.

Please don’t stress about this assignment. Crossovers make me ridiculously happy. Really. So this is going to be a blast no matter what! Also, I love gifts in general, so I’ll be chuffed to get a prize of any shape and size. I know this letter is ridiculously long as it’s the most fandoms I think I’ve ever signed up for and again I love these fandoms and tend to babble, but don’t let that scare you off. Nor is there any one request that I want more than the others, no matter how much I’ve written for one verses the others. Mostly, I’ve had years requesting some of these so LOTS of time to come up with prompts versus new pairings/fandoms might not have as many. But honestly for this whole signup, I just wanted to give you as much detail and choice as possible to hopefully help get your inspiration flowing since holy crap you signed up to write a LOT of words for me! Seriously: A. Maze. Ing.

The only thing I do ask is that my DNW list be avoided.

DNW: Infertility/miscarriage, prostitution, noncon, dubcon, requested character/pairing death, infidelity, love triangles/jealousy focus (I am far more fond of OT3ing it up), Hanahaki, characters de-aged/aged back up during the story, A/B/O, gangster/mob, noir settings, Modern AUs that remove canon SFF or historical elements, amnesia, loss of limb/amputations, mpreg, underage/adult, gender swap, teacher/student, drug abuse/alcoholism, or incest. Please no 2nd person or 1st person POVs unless in epistolary/letters format.  

For M-rated fics, please no knife/blood/gun play in a sexual context (canon level plot/action violence is fine), humiliation in a D/S dynamic, age or pet play, scat, watersports, rape-as-fantasy-scenes, anal for M/F pairings, and any kind of direct blow in a sexual situation, including spanking/flogging.

Yes Please: Post-apocalypse, slice of life/domestic/curtainfic, epistolary stories, found family, crossovers with characters ending up at the Gertrude Hunt of Ilona Andrews’ Innkeeper Chronicles series, AUs (particularly zombie apocalypse, Black Jewels verse, Sentinel/Guide, Old West, and Pacific Rim fusion), outsider POVs, supernatural elements like hauntings/werewolves/fae/etc., competency kink, fixit fics, stranded together/huddling together for warmth, and 5 and 1 style fics.

For M-rating fics, I particularly love dirty talk, Dom/Sub dynamic (service Dom and/or service Sub a plus), that Dom ordering their Sub around, restraint i.e.: shibari/handcuffs/holding partner down, wall sex, shower sex, cramped vehicular sex, biting/marking (without major blood being drawn), mate bonds and/or soul bonds needing consumation, “OMG we didn’t die” sex, and “sharing body heat” leading to sex.

Also I do have gifts enabled and welcome treats if someone who isn’t assigned me gets inspired by my requests!

Pride and Prejudice
Elinor Dashwood (Sense and Sensibility)/Colonel Fitzwilliam (Pride and Prejudice)
Jane Bennet (Pride & Prejudice)/Colonel Brandon (Sense and Sensibility)
Charlotte Lucas (Pride & Prejudice)/Colonel Brandon (Sense and Sensibility)
Jane Bennet (Pride and Prejudice) & Elinor Dashwood (Sense and Sensibility)

I really REALLY love crossovers for Jane Austen stories. Especially for the rare pairs and side characters above. Something about Colonel Brandon and Colonel Fitzwilliam just appeals to me on both fronts, and the quiet sisters of both canons, Jane, and Elinor, seem to me to have deserved better than the fates they were given by the text, as does the other “less” desirable miss, Charlotte Lucas. So, if the canon doesn’t supply a proper pairing – find another canon! Seriously, here I’m just all about mutual respect and “hearthlike” loves instead of “raging fire” passions and competency kinks abounding! I don’t have a lot of specific prompts for these requests, but if you like the style, I would particularly love me an epistolary love story or even society/gossip pages about how the couples fall in love ala Bridgerton’s Lady Whistledown for an added crossover detail LOL!

Chronicles of Riddick Series
Richard B. Riddick (Chronicles of Riddick Series)/River Tam (Firefly)

Oof, this is legit a mashup of two of my fave SF fandoms. Pitch Black is a STUNNING movie fight me! And honestly I even like Chronicles and Riddick (though the latter almost felt a little too much like Pitch Black – I really would have liked to see Furya. Oh well). And Firefly (and Serenity) had SO MUCH POTENTIAL, though yes in retrospect, it had a fair number of Whedon-esque issues (oof the sex work slurs left and right). Still, both are some of my happy places, and putting them together, and in particular these two characters together? So much yes please! I don’t know how to articulate what it is that is so fantastic about these two, but man, it just WORKS for me. I do want River to be of adult age, just FYI, but beyond that, feel free to run wild! Does Riddick escape the Necros and end up getting a ride aboard Serenity? Does River somehow end up crash-landed with the others aboard the Hunter-Gratzner? Are we pre or post Big Damn Movie? Honestly, any of these will make me thrilled. Seriously! BTW, this one is my one exception to my DNW of no sexual blood play, but only when it comes to biting/marking. I still am not game for blades against skin or any kind of dubcon/non-con; I just appreciate Riddick being a bit possessive with his River!

Richard B Riddick (Chronicles of Riddick Series) & John “Reaper” Grimm (Doom)
The ridiculous Doom movie is yet another of my way too formative fandoms. It was one of the VERY first I ever wrote fic for actually, and is a large part of my Karl Urban Problem™. Back in the day, said Problem also led to the joy of tying John into other Karl Urban fandoms with his infection turning him into an immortal. Or something? Anyway, Reaper!Vaako having lived for however many hundreds of years falling into the Necro cult if only for the possibility that he might get to die some day could be VERY fun, especially once the Riddick shows up. Riddick after all has a helluva lot of keener instincts than most, and it would be fun to see if he could figure out something is just a little extra off about Vaako. Bonus for this leading to Kyra surviving and that maybe leading to all three of them remembering how to be as close to human as possible. Hell maybe John bites Kyra to save her for Riddick? IDEK. I just like the implications of this!

Games of Thrones TV
Sansa Stark (ISOIAF)/Aragorn (LOTR)
I’ve been in a “ship Sansa with people who treat her like a queen” mood, and this crossover pairing has SO MUCH potential. I think I’d prefer it set in one world or the other, but I have read some awesome “slip from one universe to another fic” if that’s really what you are in the mood to write. Regardless of how you get them together, I would prefer no bashing of Arwen as she is glorious – she just isn’t meant to be with Aragorn for this exchange lol. But yeah, Sansa deserved SO MUCH BETTER, and Aragorn is one of my early (probably too early honestly) fantasy crushes. Oh! I also think I would prefer Sansa to be human in either world, but yeah, other than that – run amok! Courtly love! Political shenanigans that a king must deal with no matter than he still feels more like a Ranger! Letters between an arranged marriage! Sansa serving and caring for her people during a war (whichever war you decide on)! I’m just fascinated by the thought of these two – I look forward to seeing what you write!

Innkeeper Chronicles – Ilona Andrews 
Dina Demille & Gertrude Hunt (Innkeeper Chronicles) & Any Character from Another Ilona Andrews Series (Creator's Choice of Fandom) 
Dina Demille & Gertrude Hunt (Innkeeper Chronicles) & SG1 Team (Stargate SG1) 
Dina Demille (Innkeeper Chronicles)/Daniel Jackson (Stargate SG1) 
Dina Demille & Gertrude Hunt (Innkeeper Chronicles) & Any (Creator's Choice of Fandom)

I don’t know what it is about inns in general and semi-sentient ones like Gertrude Hunt in particular, but I LOVED the Innkeeper series by Ilona Andrews, and Dina and her relationship with Gertrude Hunt is definitely one of the major factors there. I also love that the inn pretty much is a perfect crossover vehicle with doors opening up to thousands of worlds and possibilities. (Why yes, yes you could cross over Riddick and/or John Grimm in this location 😉) I would be happy to see just about any crossover in this inn which is why I’ve allowed for Creator’s Choice of Fandom, and bonus Creator’s Choice of any other Ilona Andrews fandom – more Book Devouring Horde-verse shenanigans for the win! (I’ve read everything they’ve released so far so take your pic unless you have an ARC of Maggie in which case I am super jealous and also won’t get what’s going on there sadly until next year). Aside from that, Stargate SG1 is another of my forever fandoms which ALSO has a great potential for crossovers. I’ve asked for SG1 as the whole team for a gen request or something shippy with Daniel Jackson who is one of my long time fandom boyfriends and deserves all the good things (assuming Sean Evans never managed to woo Dina). I do heart me some Sean Evans though, so feel free to let him show up in any of the other request options!

lannamichaels: Astronaut Dale Gardner holds up For Sale sign after EVA. (Default)
[personal profile] lannamichaels


On the bright side, the advantage of using one-store-only virtual cards lets me know exactly which online restaurant ordering site (orderonlinemenu.com) has the leaky data security, and my credit card automatically denied the fraudulent charge.

Oy.

At least it was just a virtual number stolen, so from the email, it seems like maybe my credit card won't decide to cancel this number and give me a new one if I report the fraud. After the Really Absurd Number Of Times my card number got stolen last year, I had to make a list in a spreadsheet of which card and which virtual numbers on which cards were used on which sites, so I could update them. So even if not, this process is easier than it was. But the email just says to lock the virtual card number so it can't be fraudulently charged. Which it already has been.

This is just so annoying.

lannamichaels: Text: "We're here to heckle the muppet movie." (heckle the muppet movie)
[personal profile] lannamichaels


A Diary Of A Wimpy Kid knockoff published by Artscroll, and is exactly what you'd expect given its bona fides.

Dovi is a 4th grader at a new school and is having problems fitting in, except we have no reason to believe he's not fitting in, because that's told and not shown in any way, so it's not clear why his teacher sends him to the school therapist rabbi to be told to keep a diary. He misses his old school but we are never given any specifics about his old school or his old friends. Specifics? What specifics?

We don't even get a good idea of how many siblings he has and the age spread (his oldest brother -- probably -- went off to yeshiva in Israel, except considering the age spread of the kids, that's likely high school, but why mention any details?)

He does a lot of unspecified learning, including running a chavrusa program. He gains friends. He has no real problems and is not a wimpy kid. The shenanigans are generic and probably very boring to the target audience, who are used to the many books in this genre already, and except certain things from a confessional diary of a 4th grader at a new school who has to see the school therapist because he's not fitting in. Those things are not in this book.

Overall, I found it very bland. And that's probably the biggest problem.

Because the thing is, I don't like Diary Of A Wimpy Kid. It's better than Captain Underpants, but most things are better than Captain Underpants. All these Wimpy Kid books and that entire segment of midgrade -- I don't like them.

I'm not supposed to like them. They are written to appeal to a midgrade audience, not to the parents of the midgrade audience.

Dovi Diaries was written to appeal to adults.

But you know what? I've read worse from Artscroll.

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