regshoe | Network

They cross at the front hall, and—Jiang Cheng stares. His head, he registers dimly, is turned: Lan Xichen is singlehandedly maneuvering a rolled-up Purple mattress through the double doors. His muscles are bulging, there’s a light sheen of sweat at his temples, yet he’s barely breathing hard.

Jiang Cheng finds himself eating the man up with his eyes.

Fortunately Lan Xichen is too busy with his bulky burden to notice, and Jiang Cheng manages to smooth out his expression.

“Those things weigh, like, two hundred pounds,” he says, perfectly neutrally. “Let me help you.”

Lan Xichen meets his eyes, and smiles, and Jiang Cheng’s heart is fucking fluttered.

“More like one hundred,” his gorgeous heart flutterer says. “But I’ve got this. You’re willowy, and you look like the studious type. You shouldn’t be doing menial work.”

He says it matter-of-factly, but Jiang Cheng hasn’t been subjecting himself to weekly therapy for two years with nothing to show for it but the improvement to his own mental health.

He’s not sure, between the two of them standing here in this hall, on whose behalf he’s more indignant.

“Lan Xichen.” He addresses his new roommate with a note in his voice that even Wei Wuxian would know for danger. “Are you calling me a nerd, and yourself a meathead?”

Lan Xichen pauses.

“Yes?” he says uncertainly, and shifts, and rests the Purple mattress on the wood floor.

“Are you, by chance, in high school?”

“No?” he answers, no less uncertainly.

“Are there activities you enjoy that don’t require the use of your—frankly impressive, but that’s beside the point—muscles?”

Lan Xichen looks like he doesn’t quite know up from down.

“Yes?” he says.

“Such as?”

“Watercolor,” he answers, without hesitance this time. “And calligraphy.”

“What else?”

“The flute.”

Momentarily distracted from his interrogation by the mental image of his beefcake heart flutterer handling a flute, Jiang Cheng promptly dismisses it and presses on.

torachan

1. Back to work today. A good chunk of the morning was spent catching up on messages from the past four days, and then I helped bagging downstairs for a couple hours (the week between Christmas and New Year is the busiest for us), and had a web meeting this afternoon, but otherwise did not have a ton of stuff to do so that was fine. I volunteered to help bag tomorrow and Wednesday, too. And then it will be another four day weekend!

2. Carla is planning to go to Wisconsin again for a few days at the end of January for her aunt's birthday. Originally it was just going to be Wednesday through Sunday, but one of her cousins texted today to ask how long she was going to be there and said she had hoped they could go into Chicago one day. Since that cousin has to work, and the birthday celebration will be Saturday, the only good day would be Sunday, but there wouldn't be time to do that and get to her flight on time. So we looked into changing the return day and were able to do it with no fee! So now she'll be coming back a few days later but will be able to go spend the day in Chicago with her cousins.

3. Yesterday I spotted Tuxie loafing on the lawn. He seemed very happy the sun was out after so much rain!

sonia

a knock at your front door by anonymous, Chalion Saga, World of Five Gods - Lois McMaster Bujold. Five Gods in modern times. Vividly written, highly recommended.

The long way out of a dark tower by Anonymous, The Tower at Stony Wood - Patricia A. McKillip. I'm a longtime McKillip fan for the RiddleMaster of Hed series and Forgotten Beasts of Eld, and I thought I had read everything she wrote, including this one, but the characters didn't sound familiar at all. I'll have to go back and find it. Anyway, you don't have to know canon, lovely story.

caramarie

So I was going along, ( and now I am on the Romance Route )

bluapapilio

Episode 6: Morikawa takes Aichi along to another card shop called PSY that only shows itself for certain people and encourages him to join a tournament. A girl gets in his face and stares at him. 😅

Then a really tall woman with a funky hairdo challenges him to a duel. ...I kinda want to try that hairstyle just for fun.

A card shop run by all-women is cool. And while Aichi lost, he got a new card and learned a lot!

Episode 7: Morikawa vs Kamui, the latter of course won. Aichi gets pressured to follow Kai by Kamui along with Miwa who want to see where he lives. He catches them and is naturally unhappy, Aichi took the wrap and asked Kai to tell him his situation if he wins, but Kai says he isn't ready and to stay out of his business. "If I want you to know then I'll tell you."

Kai vs Kamui, Kai wins though Kamui lasted a while. Before Kai leaves, Aichi promises to faces him someday.

Episode 8: Did Emi have to be so mean? I mean maybe she didn't want him to get hurt? But it's good for beginners to participate and get experience!

Aichi tries to sign up last minute but a guy Kishida throws in his application too and there was only one spot left. Kishida is voiced by Konishi Katsuyuki. Ironic to hear him call out "Alfred?!

Aichi did so good!! He's just going to continue getting better even if he can't beat Kai yet.

Episode 9: Oh, Misaki's in the tournament!

Poor Aichi is so nervous and beating himself up for it, but it's just because he cares so much.

Morikawa may not be bullying Aichi anymore but he's still hopeless. He'll only improve if he starts taking the actual game seriously and not just what he wants out of it. And he gets a big thumbs down for looking down on Misaki!

Misaki and Aichi won, hah. =P

Current Mood: anxious

lebateleur

Games: I am now the proud owner of Warhammer: Dawn of War Onslaught and Wyrmspan, and am going through the rulebooks ahead of playing them with Geek BBQers in the new year.

Music: Alas, I skipped both yesterday's pub session and today's house session to focus on end-of-year adulting, so didn't do much with music this week. Nor do I dare to practice at home, given how bone dry the apartment is.

Podcasts: N/A

Roleplaying: None this week, but ma soeur did get me a ridiculously funny D&D themed mug, which I have been enjoying with an obscene amount of tea.

Television: We wrapped of The American Revolution, which was excellent overall, as have been the conversations with the GC and other friends who've watched. It's amazing how differently this history--and various aspects of it--are or are not taught depending on what school district you grew up in.

We kicked off the weekend with Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, which was great fun to see in theaters and just as fun to watch at home. Doric and Holga are such great characters, as is Simon, but Xenk will always be my forever character from this movie.

The Fellowship of the Ring, which is a permanent winter movie for me (just as the book is a winter read). The characters look nothing like the characters in my head, but oh my god did Jackson get the look of the world down cold. And National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is one of those childhood movies that, like The Princess Bride, I could probably recite in real time.

The GC & I weren't planning on watching AEW: World's End this past Saturday, but then one of the Geek BBQers offered to host, and it turned out to be a really solid PPV with tons of good matches. I loved seeing Babes of Wrath and FTG get their wins; the Darby Allen/Gabe Kidd match was intense, Mox's storyline is coming out of the doldrums at last, and Joe, Swerve, and MJF are guaranteed fire whenever they're in the ring, let alone when they're in it together. It was a small watch group, only six people at its height, and one of them was a curiosity attendee who'd never watched wrestling before. But she is also a TRPGer and former gymnast who got it immediately, and it was a ton of fun watching her get into what AEW is about. On top of that, we got to commune with bonus cats.

The GC and I started Max Headroom: a rewatch for me and new show for the GC. Max Headroom is sadly, criminally, largely forgotten today...probably because of how freaking prescient it was. Don't get me wrong, there are definitely A Lot of vintage '80s elements in this series, but. This show really did predict the future in a lot of uncomfortable ways. Cambridge Analytica-style micro-segmenting of audiences? Yup. Novel digital technologies that literally kill people? Yup. Megacorporations covering it all up for profit? Yup.

"Wow," said the GC when we were about 15 minutes in, "this is just Cyberpunk 2077." And it is. "Wow," said the GC after Max Headroom made his first on-screen appearance, "that's just...Jim Carrey." And I'd never thought about it before, but he's right. Or more accurately, Jim Carrey stole his entire shtick from Matt Frewer's Headroom and no one acknowledges it. We started with the show (I can't find my copy of the movie) but we're already two episodes in and it still really holds up.

Video Games: It's been a bit of a rough week, so I've leaned heavily into two of my major comfort games: Botanicula and Thank Goodness You're Here. We also got--but have not started playing yet--Sea of Stars

これで以上です。

goodbyebird

+ I thiiiink I'm up to date on my comment replies? My inbox turned into a right mess with all the holiday emails thrown in, sorry if I've skipped over you.

+ Tis the time for End of Year Lists, and I enjoyed Every Sapphic Book I Read This Year by

Lesbiature.

+ I actually spotted the Beehive Books illuminated version of Carmilla in a local bookshop! I didn't know their fancy editions were becoming that widespread. I backed their very first kickstarter back in the day, happy to see they've expanded. Their editions are works of art. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for a sale so I can snap it up.

+ Finally installed Vegas Pro 22 I got from Humble Bundle, and there were separate ticky boxes for Vegas Pro and Deep Learning Model. I'm assuming that's their AI bullshit? If so, GOOD. Maybe I'll venture into discord again, most vidders have abandoned ship here and I'll very likely be in need of moral support. These gay vampires won't leave me alone and I may just have to do something about it. (this is 98% likely to never result in a finished vid, my track record is very conclusive)

+ Big shoutout to

lgbtrainbow for letting me do one icon at a time. Such a fun but also easy way to go about iconning. Though I now have three colors laying in wait for when they come back around lol. I am ready to pounce. Please join us and icon All The Gays.
(I may actually have an icon post before the year ends whee)

In the meantime I've written up not one but two tutorials based on earlier PSDs, because once again I'm having to re-learn how to make icons.

❄️ ❄️ ❄️ ❄️
Rec-cember Day 29
Stranger Things
love is a battle i can win by

palmviolet (24,653 words). Christmas 1994. Nancy faces her fears. The sense of found family and friendship in this <3
She taps the end of her ballpoint on her lip and looks idly around the terminal. The bank of seats she’s sitting on is empty. But as she watches, actually, someone comes down to sit a few seats away from her. It’s a woman, short-haired, in men’s trousers and a collared shirt. She’s got sharp eyes and freckles dusted over her cheeks; the shirt, open at the throat, shows off the hint of warm brown collarbones.

She doesn’t sit for long. Soon enough she spots someone entering the terminal and she jumps to her feet, the sort of raw delight emanating off her that’s hard to look at. She rushes forward and embraces the person. Another woman. And it’s 1994, and the world’s come a long way, but not long enough for them to kiss here in public, but Nancy can tell that they want to. She can just tell. And she doesn’t know where this sense came from, where she learned it or when. How does she know? How does she know that’s what they want to do?

Not because she’s felt that way herself. She remembers the few times she and Jonathan were apart for any length of time, the way she’d feel itchy and unsettled the whole duration and yet still strangely reluctant to see him return. She wouldn’t kiss him in the airport, though she’d kiss back if he kissed her. It was a problem of knowing neither how to live with him nor how to live without him; it was a problem they all experienced with each other, moving away from New Hawkins in dribs and drabs as they did. Joyce calling Jonathan four times a day and forgetting the time difference, waking them just as they went to bed. Nancy doing the same to Mike and Holly, just in the mornings.

She checks her watch. It’s eleven twenty-eight; she puts her notebook away and gets her things together, passing the two women on her way out, and she has to avert her eyes. She can’t look at them. Her cheeks are furiously hot.

merrileemakes posting in

booknook

Arms Race: And other stories By Nic Low

Nic Low is a writer of Ngāi Tahu and European descent who divides his time between Melbourne and Christchurch. His writing on wilderness, technology and race has been widely published and anthologised on both sides of the Tasman. His first book was Arms Race, a collection of speculative fictions shortlisted for the Readings and Steele Rudd prizes, and named a New Zealand Listener and Australian Book Review book of the year.

This was a real mixed Dog of stories, not in quality or interest but in tone. They ranged from very speculative future dystopias to... I don't even know what the counter to spec fic is. Normie? Mundane? I can't remember the last time I read garden variety fiction. But one of the Low's mundane stories was a total riot - 'Rush' describes a group of First Nations Australians styling themselves as the Aboriginal Land Council of Minerals and digging up a war memorial in central Melbourne to prospect for gold. It was bang on in tone and hilarious in the way it perfectly captured the double standards and unconscious (or just fucking conscious, really) bias of colonised Australia. (hey remember the time when a brown muslim woman tweeted on ANZAC day about the human rights violations Australia was inflicting on (brown and mostly muslim) refugees and the backlash was so strong she lost her job, had to move house and eventually had to flee the country?)

I had to check to see when this book was published to work out which of the many sacred First Nations sites destroyed by the resources industry could have prompted this story, but considering the book is 11 years old there's too many to even consider.

I also really liked 'Facebook Redux', about a 70 year old millennial who digs up his old Facebook Profile to find his dead wife's old profile and gets scammed by Russian AR hackers. A really prescient story about what we broadcast online and how it can be used against us.

Low's style of not using quotation marks for speech was a bit challenging to get used to, but it was worth persevering to experience the depth and variety of these well-crafted stories.

5/5 stars. Some of these stories will stay with me for a long time.

Current Music: Tuck Shop Ladies - Hi Vis

sunnymodffa posting in

fail_fandomanon

Sorry but giving the moustache a tragic backstory is amazing and they should give it a drinking problem in the next movie.

At the end, it throws out a very tiny gin bottle, hops back on Poirot’s face, and they solve the mystery together.

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settiai

Beginnings and Ends (1015 words) by Settiai
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dragon Age: The Veilguard (Video Game), Dragon Age - All Media Types
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Rook (Dragon Age)
Additional Tags: Backstory, Elf Rook (Dragon Age), Nonbinary Rook (Dragon Age), One Shot, Veil Jumper Rook (Dragon Age)
Series: Part 1 of Mer Aldwir
Summary: Once upon a time, Mer Aldwir's greatest regret was that they didn't have vallaslin of their own.

Current Mood: accomplished

raspberryhunter

Every year I'm like, how is it there are so many good fics??
Three of these were my awesome gifts. Additionally, partial disclosure: I betaed two of these fics, but which ones are left as an exercise for the reader until reveals :)

( Recs in 18th CE RPF/Sieben Jahre, Chronicles of Chrestomanci, The Incandescent, Her Smoke Rose Up Forever (anthology) x 3 (!), Der Ring des Nibelungen, Some Desperate Glory. )

musesfool

The first lines of each month meme, 2025 edition:

( 2025 first lines from each month )
***

Current Mood: cold
Current Music: Rangers vs Canes on tv

luminousdaze posting in

iconthat

Please, remember to cast your votes in Challenge 199 - Voting. Only five people have voted so far, the poll will be open until Wednesday. Thank you in advance! 💠✨💠😊💠✨💠

goodbyebird posting in

spankulert

( As opposed to the previous tutorial, I had a very clear idea of what I wanted this icon to do. )

Current Music: IDLES - Model Village

juushika

Big delta in relative qualities here! Which mostly comes down to my preference for picture books to be numinous/wondrous and my desire for almost nothing ever to be funny. Anyway, interesting author; I don't expect to dig deeper but I'm glad I checked him out.

Title: Flotsam
Author: David Wiesner
Published: Clarion Books, 2006
Rating: 4.5 of 5
Page Count: 40
Total Page Count: 553,745
Text Number: 2078
Read Because: saw this pop up a ton when looking at reviews of Tuesday, hardback borrowed from the Timberland Regional Library
Review: A wordless picture book about a boy who finds a camera on the beach and develops its wondrous photos. I bounced off of Wiesner's Tuesday, but this works for me. The art is more dynamic; there's more narrative than just a subversion of an image of American normalcy. This is wonder as a participant act: to inherit and pass it on through curiosity, discovery, and generosity. (Reading a library copy feels particularly appropriate.) It reminds me of Van Allsburg's The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, which isn't a comparison I make lightly; if I'd found it at the right age, I would probably have an even stronger reaction.

Title: Free Fall
Author: David Wiesner
Published: HarperCollins, 1991
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 553,775
Text Number: 2079
Read Because: reading the author, hardback borrowed from the Timberland Regional Library
Review: Of course I'm an easy sell on "enter the book" as a flight of fancy, and Wiesner's typical wordlessness prevents this from reiterating the usual downfall of that premise, more pure wonder than didactic or smug. This lacks the throughline, intent, and therefore the effectiveness of Flotsam, and is objectively less successful. But the imagery is remarkable & I'm a sucker; this might be my favorite Wiesner.

( June 29, 1999 )

( Sector 7 )

Current Music: Crocodile Tears - little hurricane

shipperslist

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goodbyebird posting in

spankulert

( Where I clearly didn't have a good idea of where I was going. )

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3187/

1,300,000-1,400,000 ft: Ask a crew member to show you how to use the ISS food warmer.

https://xkcd.com/3187/

silverusagi

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Current Mood: good

juushika

Title: Underneath Everything
Author: Marcy Beller Paul
Published: Balzer + Bray, 2015
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 305
Total Page Count: 553,705
Text Number: 2077
Read Because: no idea how I found this one, ebook borrowed from Multnomah County Library
Review: The tumultuous social life of a high school senior
whose popular/outsider status and rotating relationships all come back to a messy friend-breakup. In a world where Burton's The World Cannot Give and Ojeda's Jawbone exist, this is a little redundant, mostly in a more cakes! way. It's almost without plot or stakes beyond friend group dynamics, an admirable commitment that pulls in the scope but is frequently infuriating, falling apart in the reveals and climax-that-isn't. I simultaneously buy the toxic, homoerotic dynamic and the crucial importance everything has at this age, and feel like, that's it, that's the big drama?; the writing needs to be better to sell this nuance. But I'd love nothing more than to collect fictional toxic female friendships that experiment with breathplay, so, can't fault that.