predelection

teaotter posting in

Title: some fences will forever stay unmended
Fandom: The Double
Content notes: Spoilers you probably knew before watching the show, but definitely by the third episode.
Challenge: Anticipation
Length: 100 words

Summary: Some day, Jiang Yuanbai and his daughter will meet again.

( Read more... )

ranunculus

It is a little dry, but today I got the tractor out and graded the road. Hopefully we will have a light rain soon to settle the gravel in it's new home.

This weekend it Obstacle Practice. I'm mostly ready.

The greenhouse is full of little plants growing lustily.

ranunculus

Last week the ladies from the basket weaving group came out to help cut back willow trees. They did some cutting, and a lot of harvesting of small willow twigs, most around 2 feet long. I used the chainsaw and the loppers. We got a tiny area done. On the way back to the car I realized there was an elderberry tree there. It was HUGE, one stem was at least 16 inches in diameter and probably 40 feet tall. I'm used to thinking of elderberry as a shrub. I cut back several of the smaller stems and the ladies harvested from the downed wood. They were very excited about it. Elderberry is used to make flutes, rattles, arrows and all kinds of things. The elderberry, will grow back strong and straight. It is a fire ecology plant and responds really well to being cut, or burnt.
I'm so happy that I've made contact with this community of people!

ranunculus

As of a few days ago we FINALLY have a permit to do the planned construction at Henry has been 3 long years since we set out to find an architect to draw new plans for a renovation.

This is a picture from 2004, showing the back of Henry St house. In it you can see, on the left side of the house, that there are two enclosed "porches" hanging off the back wall of the house. The top one is little, only about 7 feet wide. The lower one is 15 feet wide, so just over half the width of the house. Both porches leak a bit in big storms. Yes, since before 2004. The construction will take both porches completely off the back of the house, remove all the siding from the back of the house and move some of the windows. The window changes will allow us to put in 2 - 4 ft wide "sheer walls" running from the foundation to the roof. These will strengthen the house in an earthquake. Currently there is a window or a door, on one level or another, making it so there is almost no place where even one support runs all the way from foundation to roof. Speaking of foundations, our is literally crumbling away and has no tensile strength. NOT good. After demolition the first step will be to pour a new foundation across the back of the house.

I have been down to SF several times in the last few weeks, helping Donald clean out the garage, and hauling things to Ukiah.

.

mindstalk

Skipping a backlog of Japan posts, to write this fresh... ( Read more... )

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Posted by arafinweanappreciation

https://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/node/9035

On the night after the coronation, the wind was cold. Fires still burned in the north; their light could be seen, flickering on the far reaches of the horizon, but they provided no warmth. A figure stood on the ramparts of the keep at Hithlum, where the ceremony had been held, more solemn than joyous. The wisdom of having so many of the rulers so near the great darkness to the north, given what had happened– what was happening– was questionable, at best. But their luck held. For now.
A conversation between two kings of the Noldor.

https://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/node/9035

nnozomi posting in

guardian_learning

部首
手 part 37
援, to aid; 搂, to embrace; 搅, to mix ( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=64

词汇
敌人, enemy (pinyin in tags)
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-4-word-list/

Guardian:
没有后援, there's no rear guard
你把他当兄弟，可是他把你当敌人, you think he's your brother, but he thinks you're his enemy

Me:
加牛奶搅一下。
他很善良，天下没有敌人。

languagelog_feed

Posted by Victor Mair

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72969&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=are-you-in-the-loop

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72969

I think jargon is getting thicker with each passing day, but where are people learning it? Perhaps they are actually being taught it in business schools. It's so pervasive, nauseating, and suffocating that it must be somebody's job to produce it.

To put the new wave / avant garde jargon in perspective, I turned to this consummate collection compiled by WSJ from the complaints of actual endurers:

‘Leverage.’ ‘Reach Out.’ ‘Circle Back.’ The Corporate Jargon We Hate the Most.
We pinged our readers for the terms that really annoy them. The list is long.

By Demetria Gallegos, WSJ (Feb. 26, 2026)

Here begins the deluge:

Bandwidth: You’re not a router, just say you’re busy, pal!

I recall during an all-hands, the CEO announced the elimination of a quarterly planning meeting to “protect everyone’s bandwidth.” The freed-up two hours were immediately filled by: one new check-in meeting, three “bandwidth review” sessions to discuss how people were using their reclaimed bandwidth, and a mandatory survey about whether people felt less bandwidth-constrained. By week two, people had less bandwidth than before. The CEO sent a note: “Given current bandwidth constraints, we’ll discuss the bandwidth situation next quarter.”

— Noa Khamallah, New York

[VHM: I should mention that each of the 28 items comes with an illustrative example. Here, to save bandwidth, I omit the illustrations. However, because of the wit and vitriol displayed, I invite you to read each of them in their entirety.]

Change agent: …conjures for me someone on the midway at the fair wearing a money belt with pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters.

Circle back: I asked someone to do some research and the response was “I’ll check it out and circle back to you.”

Decision tree: As in, “Let’s reach up into our decision tree.” It’s just stupid!

Decisioning: It’s a pointless invention to give gravitas to the notion that action or choices should follow. For example,

Deep dive: Every time I hear some C-Suite type utter the dreaded “deep dive,” I want to respond, “Oh, really? Not investigate, study, discern, discover, find out about, look into?

Growth mindset: Used mainly as an ambiguous way of describing (or asking for) ambition…

Hard stop: I used to participate on a weekly call with several of my peers from different departments, all of whom, I estimate, were equally busy and crunched for time. The call was scheduled for one hour. But one person had a propensity to announce to everyone at the beginning of the call that she had a “hard stop” at 2 p.m.,

Hit the ground running: Early in my career as a new-employee trainer, I witnessed a manager tell this to a group of new hires on their first day, at the start of the onboarding process.

Juice isn’t worth the squeeze: I hear this so much every day you’d think I was working at Tropicana.

Lean in: Lean in to what? Are you dancing the Macarena? [VHM: This is one of my least favorite and least understood, but most ofter heard, trite expressions.]

Let’s take this offline: No, let’s discuss it now! [VHM: kinda reminds me of two guys in a bar about to fight — "let's take this outside"]

Leverage: When did this become a thing? “We can leverage the existing PowerPoint deck,” for example. Or maybe we could just use it?

Move the needle: Ugh. I want to vomit every time I hear this phrase.

Negative growth: This one is tough to beat.

Piggyback: As in, “I just want to piggyback on his comment.”

Pivot: Usually said by someone who does not want to tell their superior they disagree with their strategy or when a project is going horribly wrong.

Probabilistic: In the marketing world, there is “probabilistic” targeting of customers. It means probable, but someone had to make it sound fancy and almost impossible to pronounce.

Put a pin in that: This, along with “Let’s double-click on that,” is just silly speak.

Reach out: This phrase sounds so overblown.

Socialize: To share an idea or proposal with key decisionmakers in order to solicit feedback and gain approval or buy-in to make a decision.

Soup to nuts: This phrase is a non-value-add in most cases as we can tell from the context of the statement something is being looked at or redone completely. [VHM: I never thought about this enough before to understand that it meant "beginning to end".]

Space: The equity space. The beauty-supply space. The intellectual-property space. The media space.

Stakeholders: It makes me think of vampire slayers. [I bemoaned this years ago.]

Take a 10,000-foot view: I hate when people use this phrase to mean taking a look at a situation or project more broadly.

Thought leadership: This isn’t a term that most of us would use, even in semiformal conversation. Either “research” or “analysis” is easier to understand quickly/

Unpack that: In other words: Deal with it now.

Utilize: I teach new writers to avoid utilize except in a “MacGyver”-like case, when something is used for a purpose it wasn’t originally intended…

There follows the Conversation section which closed after it received and printed 688 comments, which are similar to those in the main body of the article. Of this avalanche, I will quote just the first one, together with its illustration:

Asked Grok to use all 28 phrases in one paragraph:

In a highly orchestrated alignment meeting framed as a thought leadership exercise, leadership opened by citing bandwidth pressures and recent negative growth, insisting we leverage existing assets before any deep dive, though a pivot remained visible on the decision tree pending further decisioning. Key stakeholders were told to reach out and socialize the proposal, ideally taking a 10,000-foot view while a designated change agent tried to move the needle by piggyback-ing on prior work. Predictably, difficult topics were deferred as we put a pin in that and agreed to circle back after we unpack that offline, because the juice isn’t worth the squeeze, at least under current probabilistic assumptions. Everyone was encouraged to lean in, utilize available resources, respect the looming hard stop, and maintain a resilient growth mindset despite the absence of anything resembling a concrete decision.

To me it's all just so much empty talk. I couldn't help but think how I'd say that in Mandarin, which (for me) would be fèihuà 廢話 (lit., syllable by syllable, "wasted / crippled talk"). In turn, I thought of all the ways to translate fèihuà 廢話 into English: nonsense; absurdity; balderdash; blab; blabber; blah; blather; bull; bullshit; buncombe; bunk; bunkum; codswallop; fiddle-faddle; fiddlestick; gab; guff; haver(ing) [VHM: heard that word many times in a Scottish song by the Proclaimers, "I'm gonna be (500 Miles)"; inanity; keckle; overtalk; piffle; poppycock ; prattle; rubbish; stuff; talk nonsense; tootle; trash; tripe; twaddle; waste; yack; yackety-yak; yak; yap (courtesy of GT)

Now, here at the end, I'll circle back to one of the least favorite expressions I hear from people on a daily basis: "quick question", meaning, I have no clear idea what I want to ask you, so this is going to take a lot of time to unpack and make any sense of..

Selected readings

"May I ask you a question?" (6/12/17) — "readh out to your", cf. "overreach"; "quick question"
"Stream of consciousness blather" (4/4/12)

[h.t. Mark Metcalf]

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72969&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=are-you-in-the-loop

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72969

hhimring posting in

b2memsupport

Today's bingo number is: B15

philomytha

A Perfect Spy (BBC 1987)
An adaptation of the Le Carré book, and unusually for Le Carré I could follow what was going on the whole time. It helps that it wasn't particularly twisty as plots go, and it was really a psychological exploration of Magnus Pym, where he comes from and how his relationship with his father made him into a perfect spy and then into a double agent, rather than complicated spy shenanigans as such. And it did this very well, with a slow steady journey through Magnus's life from start to end. Also it was devastatingly slashy: Axel and Magnus were just absurdly in love with each other and the show absolutely leaned into this far more than I would have expected for something made in 1987. Poppy and Sir Magnus, my poor heart. I shall have to read the book.

The German Secret Service, Walter Nicolai
This was a fascinating piece of history. Walter Nicolai was the head of German military intelligence during World War I, and he published this book in 1924 about his work. And it's an intensely, hilariously biased narrative, also full of Nicolai's fairly predictable prejudices. The way Nicolai tells it, WW1 was just not playing fair and the virtuous, noble, honourable Germans had everyone else ganging up on them in a very mean way for no reason at all and when Germans wanted to do things honourably and properly they had to contend with everyone else cheating and making unfair kinds of war with trenches and blockades which cruelly prevented the Germans from doing what they were good at and winning outright. But along with all that is a really comprehensive overview of the entire German intelligence system and also the various Entente Powers' intelligence systems and how they interacted. Nicolai lays out the different theatres of the intelligence aspects of WW1 in Europe - he doesn't go into the wider world elements - and discusses the differences between the Russian, British, French, Belgian and American intelligence networks and what they focused on and where they operated, and the measures he took to counter them. He focuses more on this than on how the German system was operating, for all that it claims to be a book about the German secret service it's more a book about catching enemy spies than about what German spies were up to, though he does talk a lot about how difficult it was to get spies out of Germany anyway when there were hostile countries on all sides. But I spent a lot of time laughing at how he kept turning absolutely everything into a propaganda argument for how much better Germans are than everyone else, even things like the significant number of Germans who were induced to spy on their own country he makes into a virtue by carefully explaining that these German traitors were utterly faithful to their new masters, loyal and reliable and provided really valuable intel and didn't ask for large sums of payment, and so as well as being the best at everything else, they were also the best double agents!

A Company of Swans, Eva Ibbotson
Harriet Morton runs away from her oppressive bigoted father and miserly aunt to join a ballet company going on tour up the Amazon river to the newly prosperous Brazilian city of Manaus. Like all the other Ibbotsons I've read, once I'd started this it whisked me along to the end without really drawing breath, it's a delightful experience to read. The characters are gorgeous, the romance is lovely, the descriptions of Harriet blossoming in her new life are a joy and the whole thing was a tremendous ride. I did find the various misunderstandings a trifle contrived, Ibbotson is quite fond of the sort of misunderstandings that cause total disaster for the characters but could have been averted with ten seconds of conversation - though she did lampshade it a bit with the Romeo and Juliet feather motif - but I loved the characters and narrative voice and the storytelling overall so much that I just rolled my eyes at those parts and carried on happily anyway.

Magic Flutes, Eva Ibbotson
In the aftermath of WW1, an Austrian princess is working backstage at the opera while her elderly aunts arrange the sale of their castle to a fantastically wealthy English industrialist, who wants to impress the woman he still loves despite the fact that she previously turned him down for being too poor and unknown. Lots of fun here, with the opera company being fantastically, hilariously and vividly described, the elderly aunts are an utter joy, and of course everyone nearly ends up married to the wrong person before a bit of subterfuge sorts it all out.

A Song for Summer, Eva Ibbotson
This one was particularly good. Ellen, raised by three determined suffragettes, unfortunately enjoys cooking more than attempting to train in a profession, so she swaps university for cooking college and then takes a job as matron of an experimental school in Austria in 1938. Here she takes on a deeply chaotic school full of troubled children whose wealthy parents don't want them around, with all of Ibbotson's usual fantastic characters, and also the mysterious groundsman Marek who is pruning trees and looking after animals in between disappearing on mysterious jobs into Nazi Germany, and refusing to participate in any music whatsoever. I won't spoil the plot, but Ibbotson doesn't follow the strict romance novel rules of the other books quite so much here and I really liked how it all worked out.

Death On Ice, R.O. Thorpe
A fun contemporary murder mystery with a Golden Age vibe. Our heroes are twins, both marine biologists, who are going on a joint luxury cruise/scientific expedition to the Arctic, when one of their shipmates turns up messily dead. The Arctic luxury cruise ship recreates all the best things about a traditional country house murder mystery, with the structured formality, enforced interaction and fancy settings, and this very much had the country house mystery feel to it. The plot was a bit involved in places, but the story overall was great fun, the characters were well drawn and I did not figure out whodunnit before the reveal - though unfortunately I also did not have the 'oh, OF COURSE' sense you get in a really well constructed murder mystery. Still, I'd definitely read another of this series, and I believe there is one, so that's all to the good.

lucymonster

Since my sudden mania for film shows no signs of slowing, I've created a Letterboxd account. I don't really plan to use it for much besides tracking what I've watched and what I plan to watch, but add me if you're a user and I'll heart your reviews when I see them. :)

Anyway it has been A Week and I've been too tired by the end of each day to do ANYTHING other than vegetate in front of the TV, and specifically to vegetate in front of something scary and tense enough to prevent my otherwise inevitable zoning-out. The upside of which is yay, more horror movies!

Hell House LLC (2015): A documentary crew investigates a haunted house attraction that went gruesomely wrong on its opening night, leading to more than a dozen fatalities under baffling circumstances which the authorities have hushed up. When

snickfic recced this movie to me, I said I would not watch it because clowns gross me out. But the haunted house + found footage conceit was calling to me enough that I decided I could probably handle the clowns - and hey, I was right! This is not especially clowny clown horror by my highly arbitrary personal standards that mostly boil down to "there are no gross clown smiles" and "there are no even grosser clown laughs". Maybe this is a gateway for me? Maybe someday I'll be sufficiently desensitised to clowns that I can catch up to the rest of the world and watch It? Whatever the case, I had fun with this movie. I admired the filmmakers' decision to leave so many questions unanswered and I think that uncertainty is scarier than any explicit answers they could have devised. (For that reason, I'm going to go right on ahead and ignore the fact that there are sequels. Not EVERYTHING has to be a franchise, damn. The movie stands alone just fine.)

On a minor note, I REALLY liked the piano-and-violin piece in the soundtrack. Beautifully simple, beautifully discordant.

Carrie (1976): I am once again standing in awe of the incredibly broad palate of flavours that get lumped together under the "horror" label. This movie is not a scare so much as an anguished distillation of the cruelties of high school. Carrie suffers horrific religious abuse at home and extreme bullying at school; after falling victim to a very public and sadistic "prank" during senior prom, she unleashes her budding telekinetic powers on the watching crowd with murderous results. But her rampage is - well, not an afterthought per se, but it happens right at the end of the film in a dizzying blitz; the vast majority of the screentime (and the most visceral source of horror, for me at least) is the long, slow lead-up to the prank, as tension mounts between the glow-up narrative Carrie thinks she's living and the humiliation we know she's about to suffer.

I am not enough of a Film Buff(TM) to comment on the weird split-screen thing they were doing during the climax, or whatever the fuck was happening at the start with that borderline pornographic locker room shower scene. Both of them threw me out a bit but neither was enough of a hiccup to spoil what was otherwise a really gripping story.

The Old Dark House (1932): I watched this because it stars Boris Karloff, and while it may not be one of his most iconic roles, it was the one my library happened to have on offer at the moment I found myself thinking, 'Hey, I should watch some Boris Karloff!' So on those qualifications, I bring you this old-school spooky cult classic about two small groups of travellers who are forced by a violent storm to go begging for shelter at an isolated old house in the Welsh countryside, whose eccentric inhabitants turn out to be harbouring a deadly family secret. Karloff's physical acting is impressive: his character, Morgan the butler, is completely mute but has an immense screen presence (literally as well as metaphorically) despite the lack of dialogue. He's a hulking mass of danger whose sullen subservience turns to violent, lust-addled malice when he drinks, as of course he does on the stormy night in question. There's also a romance between a feckless WWI vet and a chorus girl who is only technically not the sugar baby of one of the other houseguests, which aside from being endearing in its own right was a lot more risqué than I expected of a movie from the 30s. Evidently the "pre-Code" label is more than just a historical technicality!

swg_archive_feed

Posted by pandemonium_213

https://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/node/736

Story by pandemonium_213: The grisly banner having served its purpose, Sauron enlists the assistance of his soldiers and bodyguard to bear Celebrimbor's corpse to its final resting place in the foothills of the Misty Mountains while a snowstorm approaches from the southwest.
Note: Descriptions of torture and a deteriorating corpse may be too intense for some readers (roughly equivalent to MPAA R-rating or TV Ratings Mature Audience); some expletive language. Pandë!versecentric.
Illustrations by Huinárë: Title: 1. "Examining His Work" / 2. "Thundersnow" Pencil illustration / Construction paper collage. Rating: G

https://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/node/736

sinvulkt posting in

fandomcalendar

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

duckprintspress

An image on a blue background. Clipart of a white person with long black hair is on one side, showing just their head and their hands as they hold up an orange book to read. Text reads "Read an ebook week. Smashwords. www.smashwords.com/sale.

There are 2 days left in Read an Ebook Week! Smashwords is celebrating with a big sale, and we’ve joined in: All Duck Prints Press ebooks on Smashwords are 50% until March 7th!

duckprintspress

https://www.tiktok.com/@duckprintspress/video/7613802792209157406

Transcript: What is the hardest part of putting together an anthology? Is it reviewing pitches, or editing or some third thing?

This is gonna sound like a cheap answer, but the answer is everything. And by that I don't actually mean that every part is the hardest, I mean the hardest part is the totality of it. It's not any one thing, but rather it's keeping track of all of the different parts of it, at least that's what I find hardest. Because it's project management and there's a lot of moving pieces and as the lead editor and the project manager, keeping track of all those pieces is my responsibility. So it's like, I'm not just reviewing pitches. I'm not just editing. I'm not just what was the other one here - well, those were the two example specifics but yeah. I'm not only doing each of those things. Like while I'm editing, I'm also helping figure out what the typeset should look like. I'm helping figure out the cover artist is. I'm communicating with the artist and the other artists doing merchandise. I'm writing out the budget. I'm, you know, I'm communicating with the editors. Like, it's - it's the totality of it that's hard. It's keeping all of the pieces moving at the same pace in the hopes that all of it will end up being ready at about the same time so that we can then crowdfund it.

And I'm not always that good at that. If you ever notice any of our projects getting delayed, it's often - it's most often because I've failed at one part of that or another, and some piece has fallen behind, and I need to catch that one up before I can be ready. So, thank you for asking me that question. If you've got any questions for the owner of an indie press, feel free to drop them my way. I'm Claire from Duck Prints Press. Bye!

elayna

I thought Ncuti Gatwa was excellent in Sex Education, was pleased when he was cast as The Doctor, and was fabulous as him. (The stories were a little dicey, but he was good.)

He starred on the stage in The Importance of Being Earnest, which was recorded, and will be available on YouTube from March 12 to March 18. Next week! Starting Thursday! I've seen several pictures from the production, his outfits are dazzling and he looks like he's having a great time.

I'm not even sure if I've seen this play or not. I think I have, but only once several decades ago. I am determined to watch it and not find my reminder two days too late.

https://www.theatermania.com/news/the-importance-of-being-earnest-starring-ncuti-gatwa-will-stream-for-free-on-youtube_1824690/

Anyway, fyi for fans of Ncuti or good theater.

duckprintspress

Duck Prints Press’s monthly “created works round-ups” are our opportunity to spotlight some of the amazing work that people working with us have done that ISN’T linked to their work with Duck Prints Press. We include fanworks, outside publications, and anything else that creators feel like sharing with y’all. Inclusion is voluntary and includes anything that they decided “hey, I want to put this on the created work’s round-up!”

Visit our Created Works Round-Up Master Post to see all the works our creators have shared since September, 2022!

And check out what they’ve shared with us this month…

Bird of Prey by Amalia Zeichnerin / @amaliazeichnerin

fiction || the night manager (tv series, 2016 and 2026) || m/m || jonathan pine/teddy dos santos || mature || no major warnings apply || 3,651 || complete

summary: As Jonathan Pine and Teddy dos Santos face Richard Roper in the Colombian jungle, everything comes to light, lying out in the open. Jonathan is determined to flee because he has no other options left at this point. But can he take Teddy with him?

other tags: fix it fanfic, hurt/comfort, medical procedure, no smut, wounded character

AO3

A Shadow from the Past by Amalia Zeichnerin / @amaliazeichnerin

fiction || the night manager (tv series, 2016 and 2026) || m/m || jonathan pine/teddy dos santos || mature || no major warnings apply || 4,444 || complete

summary: Five years have passed since Jonathan Pine and Teddy dos Santos have met for the first time in Colombia. Three since they have brought down Richard Onslow Roper together. They have married, living together in London, where Teddy is now working for an NGO (a real one) and Jonathan is pursuing a career as an author of thriller novels with spies. But then a man from Teddy’s criminal past shows up…

other tags: Just a little bit of Angst, Suspense, Crime, Wholesome, Kissing, Disabled Character, Physical Disability, Non-Explicit Sex

AO3

Tourney Rides by sidewinder_eye

fiction || a song of ice and fire || f/f, f/m, poly (multiple genders) || ashara dayne/ned stark, arthur dayne/ned stark, ned stark/rhaegar targaryen, elia martell/rhaegar targaryen, robert baratheon/ned stark || explicit || no major warnings apply || 2,332 || complete

summary: “You’ve always wondered, my love, if the honorable Ned Stark ever touched himself outside of Ashara tripping him into their marital bed. The answer, I am glad to report, is yes. I am less glad to report that it was a most pitiful sight: huddled in the dark with naught but the latrine’s buzzing flies for company, having the guiltiest, most furtive wank I’ve ever had the misfortune to behold.

It was not the name of his lady wife that he was whimpering.

Ashara’s instincts has once again been proven exceptionally correct: her poor uptight husband would be a far happier man if he unwound just a whit, and let his fertile fields be well and truly plowed by Robert Baratheon.”

other tags: Not Canon Compliant, Anal Sex, Anal Fingering, Anal Play, Nipple Play, Innocence, Loss of Virginity, Anal Orgasm, Crack, Kneeling, Begging, Nudity, Alternate Universe – Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies

AO3

Everything You Can Do by sidewinder_eye

fiction || knight of the seven kingdoms || m/m || baelor “breakspear” targaryen/maekar i targaryen, daemon i blackfyre/baelor “breakspear” targaryen, daemon i blackfyre/maekar i targaryen, daemon i blackfyre/baelor “breakspear” targaryen/maekar i targaryen || explicit || no major warnings apply || 2,779 || complete

summary: “You’re not planning to stand around like an empty suit of armor the entire time I’m fucking your brother, I hope,” the pretender king says. “It rather kills the mood.”

King Daemon Blackfyre AU with Baelor Targaryen as his lover and Master of Laws.

Maekar “Everything Baelor does I’m going to do better” Targaryen: If my brother can take a fat Blackfyre alpha cock up his uptight arse then I can too.

other tags: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Alpha, Anal Sex, Anal Fingering, First Time Bottoming, Unreliable Narrator, Fluff and Crack, Alternate Universe – Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Targcest | Targaryen Incest (A Song of Ice and Fire)

AO3

Change Your Win Conditions by Vee Dragonmuse / @dragonmuse

fiction || heated rivalry || m/m || shane hollander/ilya rozanov || explicit || no major warnings apply || 102,965 || complete

summary: Sometimes life came at you with a clenched fist and Ilya had never figured out how to duck. So here he was, twenty-eight years old, single, dealing with the fallout from injuries given to him by the game he loved, and the second youngest assistant coach in the league to one of the worst teams. Stability was hard to come by, but he was managing.

Then along came Shane Hollander to knock him on his ass, one more time.

other tags: Alternate Universe – Canon Divergence Career Ending Injuries Therapy Spoilers for Book 6: The Long Game (Game Changers) Coming Out Ottawa Centaurs (Game Changers) Slow Burn Getting Back Together Summary

AO3

The Trial of Shen Qingqiu (Could Only End One Way) by Zel Howland / @deathbycoldopen

fiction || scum villain’s self-saving system || m/m || luo binghe/shen yuan | shen qingqiu || explicit || creator choses not to use warnings || 21,773 || complete

summary: Luo Binghe doesn’t know why he keeps going back to the Water Prison just to be ignored. He’s nothing more than a dog running back to the person who had kicked it, tail between its legs but eyes full of hope, only to be kicked again.

He doesn’t even need a soft touch, or an apology, or acceptance. He just needs something. A word, a glance, an expression besides careful blankness. He might be a greedy, starving thing, but he knows how to survive on crumbs. That’s all he needs. A crumb.

So when Qiu Haitang offers a surefire way to spill Shen Qingqiu’s secrets—a tea that will not only compel him to speak only the truth, but will also loosen his inhibitions and his tongue—Luo Binghe leaps at the opportunity. A public trial isn’t the best place for him to get his answers, but he’ll take what he can get. That’s all he ever does.

other tags: Truth Serum, Fuck-Or-Die, Aphrodisiacs, Dubious Consent, Whump

AO3

Young Hearts by enchantedsleeper / @iffeelscouldkill

video || matilda (1996 film) || platonic or familial || general audiences || no major warnings apply || 00:03:20 || complete

summary: The ‘young hearts’ of Matilda and their hard-won victories. Set to ‘Young Hearts’ by Strange Talk. A festivid for magsintherain.

other tags: Friendship, Found Family, Song: Young Hearts (Strange Talk, Physical Triggers (Check author’s notes for specifics)

AO3 – YOUTUBE

I Don’t Care What You Think (As Long As It’s About Me) by pherryt / @pherryt

fiction || one piece || m/m, f/m || roronoa zoro/sanji || explicit || no major warnings apply || 34,778 || complete

summary: An unexpected change for Zoro makes Sanji reassess his feelings for the marimo – especially after Zoro returns to normal and Sanji finds the feelings aren’t going away.

other tags: temporary sex change, hurt/comfort, lots of sex, but also domestic tm

AO3

off/on/off by ShannonXL / @shamwowxl

fiction || the vampire diaries || f/m || elena gilbert/damon salvatore || explicit || creator choses not to use warnings || 3,824 || complete

summary: Canon divergence after S4E17. Elena’s humanity is off and Katherine is in the wind with the cure. Pulled in two directions, the Salvatore brothers have to divide and conquer.

When Damon finds her, Elena is bored. Breaking his heart will give her something to do.

other tags: Extremely Dubious Consent, Pining While Fucking, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional Hurt

AO3

The Proper Motivation by ShannonXL / @shamwowxl

fiction || lost || m/m || boone carlyle/john locke || explicit || no major warnings apply || 2,060 || complete

summary: Boone and Locke take some time off from trying to open the hatch.

other tags: Rope bondage, anal sex, praise kink, light dom/sub

AO3

Sounds by ShannonXL / @shamwowxl

fiction || the vampire diaries || f/m || elena gilbert/damon salvatore || explicit || no major warnings apply || 3,570 || complete

summary: “So,” Elena said after they returned from the 1903 prison world. “That’s your mother.”

“Yep,” Damon said, punctuating the word with a pop of his lips. “Such a delight.”

“Yeah,” Elena replied, expression a mixture of resignation and stoicism. “So delightful you chose her name as your safeword.”

Damon and Elena realize they need to be quiet if they’re going to play tonight.

other tags: Rope Bondage, Suspension, Pain, Vampire Elena Gilbert, Penis In Vagina Sex, Established Relationship, Sub Damon Salvatore, Dom Elena Gilbert, Dom/sub, Orgasm Control, Breathplay

AO3

…Baby One More Time, Chapter 16 and 17 by EliotQueliot / @eliotqueliot

fiction || the magicians (lev grossman, syfy) || m/m || quentin coldwater/eliot waugh || mature || creator choses not to use warnings || 5,480 || work in progress

chapter 16 summary: The answer had been there all along.

chapter 17 summary: summary: Watching things go right.

other tags: Time Loop, Alternate Universe – Canon Divergence, Quentin Coldwater Lives, Time Travel Fix-It, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Memories, horomancy, Mosaic Timeline (The Magicians: A Life in the Day), Age Difference, The Clock Barrens (Fillory), the mosaic, Post-Mosaic Timeline (The Magicians: A Life in the Day)

chapter 16: TUMBLR – AO3 | chapter 17: TUMBLR – AO3

How Do You Spell Your Name? by EliotQueliot / @eliotqueliot

fiction || the magicians (lev grossman/syfy) || m/m || quentin coldwater/eliot waugh || mature || creator choses not to use warnings || 508 || complete

summary: At the Physical Kids Cottage, Quentin came into Eliot’s room because he was having a difficult night. They’re snuggling now.

other tags: Eliot Waugh’s Canonically Huge Dick, Quentin Coldwater’s Oral Fixation, Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff

TUMBLR – AO3

Episodic Magicians Haiku, Chapter 1: “Apocalypse? Now?!” and Chapter 2: “Oops!…I Did It Again” by EliotQueliot / @eliotqueliot

fiction || the magicians (lev grossman, syfy) || m/m || quentin coldwater/eliot waugh || teen & up || no major warnings apply || 137 || work in progress

chapter 1 summary: I’m doing a rewatch with my friends. Sometimes I comment in the form of a haiku, especially using episode quotes. So I decided to make a fic. It’s basically going to start with the episode we watched last night and keep going, since we keep rewatching. A lot is going to be inspired by episode quotes; some might be my thoughts/feelings about the characters/show/plot, including an occasional AU moment for that episode. From time to time I might stray into other episodes if the thought came up while watching. Thanks for reading! Slightly silly, always heartfelt!

chapter 2 summary: Before the Winter Olympics started, we watched 5×06, “Oops!…I Did It Again.” My favorite episode in Season 5!

other tags: Alternate Universe – Canon Divergence, Canon Compliant, Not Canon Compliant, Rewatch, Poetry, Haiku

chapter 1: TUMBLR – AO3 | chapter 2: TUMBLR – AO3

A Flurry of Notes by EliotQueliot / @eliotqueliot

fiction || the magicians (lev grossman/syfy) || m/m || quentin coldwater/eliot waugh || general audiences || no major warnings apply || 2,175 || complete

summary: It’s almost Valentine’s Day, and Eliot still can’t figure out what to put in that note to Q.

other tags: Love Notes, Valentine’s Day, Fluff, Brakebills (The Magicians), Alternate Universe – No Beast (The Magicians)

TUMBLR – AO3

At the Mosaic (Teddy’s Lullabies). Music by Hallie Dolin; Art by EliotQueliot by EliotQueliot / @eliotqueliot

art || the magicians (lev grossman/syfy) || m/m || quentin coldwater/eliot waugh || teen & up || no major warnings apply || complete

summary: I had the honor of making the album front and back cover for my friend’s beautiful filk EP!

My friend made this incredible music for all fans of The Magicians (Lev Grossman/SyFy)! So beautiful. I love these lullabies so much. And I got to make the album covers…I’m forever grateful and honored and just plain amazed I got to be a part of this. Please check it out! Hallie is an amazing musician, and I love these songs so much.

TUMBLR – INSTAGRAM – LINK

Mosaic Haiku, Chapter 22: Bonus: Art Recap, Sept. 28, 2025-Feb. 5, 2026 by EliotQueliot / @eliotqueliot

art || the magicians (lev grossman/syfy) || m/m || quentin coldwater/eliot waugh || general audiences || creator choses not to use warnings || work in progress

summary: The second “bonus” art chapter, collecting ten art pieces added from September 28, 2025-February 5, 2026. This work celebrates the full, good lives Eliot and Quentin shared at the Mosaic. Since I’m going back and adding art as I have time, it didn’t seem fair to those who’d already read prior chapters and might miss it, so I’m now periodically collecting the new art in bonus chapters.

other tags: Haiku, Poetry, Mosaic, Beauty Of All Life, Episode: s03e05 A Life in the Day, Mosaic Timeline (The Magicians: A Life in the Day), Watercolors, Drawings

TUMBLR – AO3

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Posted by arafinweanappreciation

https://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/node/9034

The truth was, she should have been dead. The spear that was now leaning against the wall behind her should have killed her. The healers had told her that they had never seen someone survive such a wound, especially without the aid of elvish medicine, as she had been for the first days after the people of Brethil had found her.

https://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/node/9034

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Posted by arafinweanappreciation

https://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/node/9033

“Tell me…” the exhausted king said, looking directly into the commander’s eyes. He was covered in grime, soot and dirt, ash and blood, mud and sweat. His eyes were haunted. The War took its toll, after all, the very ground itself turning against them. The ruby light of the flames only served to reveal their hollowness. “The forces here. The orcs. Never before have I ridden against a host who parts and flees at the very sight of me. Why do they do so now?”

https://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/node/9033

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The Double: fanfic: some fences will forever stay unmended

Road, Obstacle Practice

Willow, Elderberry

Henry St

Taipei travel and impressions

as I prune my feathers

第五年第五十四天

Are you in the loop?

Admin Post: B2MeM Bingo Number for 5 March

spies, romance and mystery

You guys will be shocked but I've been watching some more horror

Winter's Drums

Star Wars: Vaderkin Creative Exchange 2026

TEEN WOLF: Make him submit: A sub!Derek Hale Fest

Save 50% on Our Titles on Smashwords During Read an Ebook Week!

There are 2 days left in Read an Ebook Week! Smashwords is celebrating with a big sale, and we’ve joined in: All Duck Prints Press ebooks on Smashwords are 50% until March 7th!

Indie Publisher AMA: Publishing Anthologies is Hard!

Fannish 50 2026 #13: Ncuti Gatwa

Created Works Round-Up: February 2026

with steel from on high

the raging storm of a foreign war, and a face i'd seen before

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