Poly self-reccing
Apr. 30th, 2026 10:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
china_shop![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
polyamships' questions for 3weeks4dreamwidth:29 April: Self rec time! what poly fanwork of yours are you most proud of? share it here! Not a creator? Then who's your favorite fandom creator? Time to share!!!
I have too many fics, and I'm really bad at favourites or "most proud of"s, so I'm choosing one per fandom, and even that is pretty random/hard. ;-p
Due South
This one is about 2/3rds relationship negotiation and 1/3rd porn. I'd written a bunch of Ray/Ray bringing Fraser into the relationship at this point, and I wanted to try Fraser/Vecchio bringing Kowalski in. Which took more words than you'd think!
Title: The Invitation (8824 words) [Explicit]
Fandom: due South
Relationships: Benton Fraser/Ray Vecchio/Ray Kowalski
Additional Tags: First Time, Post-Canon, Threesome - M/M/M
Summary:
But Ray had already turned on Fraser again. "You don't want me yourself, but I'm the go-to guy when your boyfriend has an itch you can't scratch?"
White Collar
My first fic in White Collar fandom. It starts off a little bitsy (I posted it as I went, in parts on LiveJournal), but hits its stride after a while, and I really like some of the exploration of feelings in here, as well the boundless trust issues that come with integrating a con artist parolee into one's respectable suburban married life.
Title: The Reasonable Doubt 'verse (45916 words) [Explicit]
Fandom: White Collar
Relationships: Elizabeth Burke/Peter Burke/Neal Caffrey
Characters: Elizabeth Burke, Peter Burke, Neal Caffrey, June, Mozzie, Satchmo
Additional Tags: First Time, Episode Related, Threesome - F/M/M, Con Artists, Married Couple, Work Relationships, Trust Issues, Podfic Available
Summary:
Peter's changing, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out why. He gets a light in his eye when he talks about work. He's relaxed, happier, more willing to indulge in romantic moments. He sings in the shower, kisses her in the kitchen. When they make love, he looks into her eyes, and she can feel it—all that attention she used to crave. It's giddying.
Neal isn't taking anything away from Elizabeth. He's giving her back the man she married.
While You Were Sleeping (2017 Kdrama)
One of my first WYWS fics, and aside from anything else, I think I really nailed Jae Chan's dorkiness. Hee! And also Woo Tak's yearning, and Hong Joo's cheerful bulldozing.
Title: The end of lonely (2480 words) [General Audiences]
Fandom: 당신이 잠든 사이에 | While You Were Sleeping (TV)
Relationships: Han Woo Tak/Jung Jae Chan/Nam Hong Joo
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Threesome - F/M/M, First Dates, First Kiss, First Aid, Driving all night, That Kdrama trope where the sunrise is always conveniently timed
Summary:
Woo Tak thinks even if tonight isn’t a date, he’ll come out to his friends. (Sequel to "I see you when I close my eyes".)
Guardian
This has Ye Huo working through his feelings for the others, in particular, going from seeing Guo Changcheng as a klutzy kid to someone who has matured and is desirable. And then there is a LOT of sex. This may actually be the porniest of my Guardian fic.
Title: Every Shimmer Is A Searchlight (15909 words) [Explicit]
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Relationships: Chu Shuzhi/Guo Changcheng/Ye Huo
Characters: Ye Huo, Chu Shuzhi, Guo Changcheng
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Threesome - M/M/M, Pining, Friends to Lovers, Idiots in Love, Polyamory, Consent, Talking During Sex, negotiating sex, First Time, everyone's a switch, Let's say Dixingren can't catch or pass on STDs, AKA I couldn't be bothered with condoms, Traces of angst, Belonging
Series: Part 1 of This Sunsettled Life (Chu Shuzhi/Guo Changcheng/Ye Huo)
Summary:
“We’re asking you out,” says Guo Changcheng. “Or—well, asking you in. If you want to.”
What I'm Doing Wednesday
Apr. 29th, 2026 04:06 pmsagebooks
The Jeeves Omnibus Vol. 2:
Right Ho, Jeeves: skipped bc I just read it in another volume.
Joy in the Morning: 1947. Eh. Not his best work.
Carry On, Jeeves: 1925. MY FAVORITE! SO GOOD!
The Best Kind of American: A True Story of Murder, War, and America's Undoing in the Middle East by Kim Ghattas. 2026. ARC. Read twice so I could write a coherent review. This book is a tour de force of investigative journalism, an extraordinary journey covering the last 50-ish years in the Middle East, from the Carter Administration to the current Trump regime. Structured around the murder of Malcolm Kerr, the president of American University Beirut, by Iranian-controlled assassins, and the story of his family, it explores a wildly complicated conflict centered on Lebanon, but involving Israel, Iran, Syria, France, the US, Germany, and others. Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and various splinter groups are contextualized in their struggle against Israeli and Western powers. Most importantly, Ghattas is unbiased, putting blame where it's due in all corners. Contains multiple murders, kidnappings, hijackings, and episodes of torture -- war on many levels -- but also the search for justice through the courts for the Kerr family. Highly recommended.
The Cloak and Its Wizard by R.Z. Nicolet. 2026. Magical sentient cloak chooses a middle-aged female neurosurgeon as its new wearer. I did not see the superheroes coming and thus did not care...until suddenly I did. The last half of the novel is pretty great, but it takes a bit to get rolling.
Israel: What Went Wrong? by Omer Bartov. 2026. Excellent contextualization of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from 1948 through the cease fire of late last year. Includes the October 7 attacks & Israel's retaliation. Goes into Israel's lack of a constitution and the consequences of that. Discusses the charges of apartheid, brought by South Africa, against Israel in the International Criminal Court. Finally, suggests 4 different plans for peace between Israel and Palestine. My opinion: Israel desperately needs a constitution, and Bibi desperately needs to spend the rest of his life in prison for war crimes. Which aligns me with Israeli leftists. This is a grim book, but it's relatively short. There's a bibliography, but no notes.
currently reading: The Jeeves Omnibus Vol. 3: The Mating Season (1949) / Ring for Jeeves (1953) / Very Good, Jeeves! (1930).
healthcrap
left hand + wrist still hurt a great deal, so no yarning. Didn't go to yarn group. Have been sleeping really a lot and not getting up until way too late, despite four alarms. Replaced coffee with tea. Sleep disorders suck.
astrology
full moon in Scorpio this Friday just as the protests are kicking off. Later in the day, Mercury conjoins Chiron in Aries. An apt time for airing grievances. A bit more potential for violence than I'm entirely happy with, but I'm hoping for the best.
#resist
May 1: No Kings 4!
I hope all of you are doing well! <333
The Jeeves Omnibus Vol. 2:
Right Ho, Jeeves: skipped bc I just read it in another volume.
Joy in the Morning: 1947. Eh. Not his best work.
Carry On, Jeeves: 1925. MY FAVORITE! SO GOOD!
The Best Kind of American: A True Story of Murder, War, and America's Undoing in the Middle East by Kim Ghattas. 2026. ARC. Read twice so I could write a coherent review. This book is a tour de force of investigative journalism, an extraordinary journey covering the last 50-ish years in the Middle East, from the Carter Administration to the current Trump regime. Structured around the murder of Malcolm Kerr, the president of American University Beirut, by Iranian-controlled assassins, and the story of his family, it explores a wildly complicated conflict centered on Lebanon, but involving Israel, Iran, Syria, France, the US, Germany, and others. Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and various splinter groups are contextualized in their struggle against Israeli and Western powers. Most importantly, Ghattas is unbiased, putting blame where it's due in all corners. Contains multiple murders, kidnappings, hijackings, and episodes of torture -- war on many levels -- but also the search for justice through the courts for the Kerr family. Highly recommended.
The Cloak and Its Wizard by R.Z. Nicolet. 2026. Magical sentient cloak chooses a middle-aged female neurosurgeon as its new wearer. I did not see the superheroes coming and thus did not care...until suddenly I did. The last half of the novel is pretty great, but it takes a bit to get rolling.
Israel: What Went Wrong? by Omer Bartov. 2026. Excellent contextualization of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from 1948 through the cease fire of late last year. Includes the October 7 attacks & Israel's retaliation. Goes into Israel's lack of a constitution and the consequences of that. Discusses the charges of apartheid, brought by South Africa, against Israel in the International Criminal Court. Finally, suggests 4 different plans for peace between Israel and Palestine. My opinion: Israel desperately needs a constitution, and Bibi desperately needs to spend the rest of his life in prison for war crimes. Which aligns me with Israeli leftists. This is a grim book, but it's relatively short. There's a bibliography, but no notes.
currently reading: The Jeeves Omnibus Vol. 3: The Mating Season (1949) / Ring for Jeeves (1953) / Very Good, Jeeves! (1930).
healthcrap
left hand + wrist still hurt a great deal, so no yarning. Didn't go to yarn group. Have been sleeping really a lot and not getting up until way too late, despite four alarms. Replaced coffee with tea. Sleep disorders suck.
astrology
full moon in Scorpio this Friday just as the protests are kicking off. Later in the day, Mercury conjoins Chiron in Aries. An apt time for airing grievances. A bit more potential for violence than I'm entirely happy with, but I'm hoping for the best.
#resist
May 1: No Kings 4!
I hope all of you are doing well! <333
My history of OT3s
Apr. 28th, 2026 12:55 pmchina_shopFor the polyamships comm's 3weeks4dreamwidth:
27 April: How did you discover poly ships? What makes you write/read/draw them?
Overlooking a few dabblings, I arrived in online/LJ fandom in mid-2004, in Due South. It was after the Ray Wars had mostly settled, in the time of Pax Speranza, which is to say that Ray Kowalski had mostly won, but it was outre to bash Ray Vecchio or be rude to Fraser/Vecchio fans. By and large, we shared the same comms and fannish events, etc. To start with, I fell in with the majority and was exclusively Fraser/Kowalski. But within a year, I was dabbling in other sides of the Fraser-Kowalski-Vecchio triangle, particularly keen on Kowalsi/Vecchio AKA Ray/Ray. And then![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pearl_o prompted "strange and uncomfortable threesomes", and because my brain was a petri dish, I wrote it: Canoes and Taxidermy (F/K, K/V, F/K/V, angst).
But that wasn't really poly so much as cheating/failing to communicate, and an ill-advised falling into bed that ended badly.
Four months later, I wrote my first real threesome get-together: Soft Arithmetic (F/K/V). And from there, all bets were off. The OT3 fic flowed thick and fast. *ahem*
So when I transitioned into White Collar fandom, it felt only natural for Peter/Elizabeth/Neal to be my primary ship. I'm a slasher at heart, but I loved Elizabeth, and they all clearly cared about each other. I found El's inclusion in the ship made it more stable, that the guys would be careful of her when they might not commit as fully to just each other (given all the trust issues, etc). Peter/Elizabeth/Neal was my main focus for the five years I was in that fandom.
I also started watching Kdramas, and I found that in love triangles where they all care deeply about each other, my preferred solution was to smoosh them all together. I acquired some tiny fandom loves: a vee-shaped threesome for Love in the Moonlight (the crown prince/his trusted head guard & the crown prince/the female lead) and a more equilateral threesome for While You Were Sleeping (Han Woo Tak/Jung Jae Chan/Nam Hong Joo).
My current fandom, Guardian, is a drama based on a Chinese m/m novel, so it's super super slashy for the main pairing. But I'm a poly-shipper now, as well as a slasher, so after a while I inevitably started looking for threesome possibilities and exploring those (usually inspired by others' exchange/fest prompts): Chu Shuzhi/Guo Changcheng/Ye Huo, and Chu Shuzhi/Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan.
Things I love about threesomes:
(Wow, this took me ages to write; I got lost in the forest of old Due South posts and debates about characterisation for which there would be much more useful language these days. :-)
polyamships comm's 3weeks4dreamwidth:27 April: How did you discover poly ships? What makes you write/read/draw them?
Overlooking a few dabblings, I arrived in online/LJ fandom in mid-2004, in Due South. It was after the Ray Wars had mostly settled, in the time of Pax Speranza, which is to say that Ray Kowalski had mostly won, but it was outre to bash Ray Vecchio or be rude to Fraser/Vecchio fans. By and large, we shared the same comms and fannish events, etc. To start with, I fell in with the majority and was exclusively Fraser/Kowalski. But within a year, I was dabbling in other sides of the Fraser-Kowalski-Vecchio triangle, particularly keen on Kowalsi/Vecchio AKA Ray/Ray. And then
pearl_o prompted "strange and uncomfortable threesomes", and because my brain was a petri dish, I wrote it: Canoes and Taxidermy (F/K, K/V, F/K/V, angst). But that wasn't really poly so much as cheating/failing to communicate, and an ill-advised falling into bed that ended badly.
Four months later, I wrote my first real threesome get-together: Soft Arithmetic (F/K/V). And from there, all bets were off. The OT3 fic flowed thick and fast. *ahem*
So when I transitioned into White Collar fandom, it felt only natural for Peter/Elizabeth/Neal to be my primary ship. I'm a slasher at heart, but I loved Elizabeth, and they all clearly cared about each other. I found El's inclusion in the ship made it more stable, that the guys would be careful of her when they might not commit as fully to just each other (given all the trust issues, etc). Peter/Elizabeth/Neal was my main focus for the five years I was in that fandom.
I also started watching Kdramas, and I found that in love triangles where they all care deeply about each other, my preferred solution was to smoosh them all together. I acquired some tiny fandom loves: a vee-shaped threesome for Love in the Moonlight (the crown prince/his trusted head guard & the crown prince/the female lead) and a more equilateral threesome for While You Were Sleeping (Han Woo Tak/Jung Jae Chan/Nam Hong Joo).
My current fandom, Guardian, is a drama based on a Chinese m/m novel, so it's super super slashy for the main pairing. But I'm a poly-shipper now, as well as a slasher, so after a while I inevitably started looking for threesome possibilities and exploring those (usually inspired by others' exchange/fest prompts): Chu Shuzhi/Guo Changcheng/Ye Huo, and Chu Shuzhi/Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan.
Things I love about threesomes:
- when it comes to love triangles, no one gets left out
- interesting/complicated dynamics
- they force characters to communicate
- so many different kinds of first times!
- the "obstacle" of assumed monogamy making someone believe the already paired-off objects of their affections aren't available/don't return their feelings
- *smooooosh*
(Wow, this took me ages to write; I got lost in the forest of old Due South posts and debates about characterisation for which there would be much more useful language these days. :-)
Me-and-media update
Apr. 28th, 2026 10:34 amchina_shopPandemic/oil crisis life
My car battery is flat again. *facepalm* I've bought a solar trickle charger, but I need to top up my battery before I install it, so I guess that's one task for this week. Sigh. I've considered ditching the car altogether, and relying on taxis and my bike, but there are certain circumstances (which hopefully won't recur *knock on wood*) under which I need to be able to drive. I chose my car for its exceptionally light power-steering (my arms), so unfortunately it's not interchangeable like snowmobile parts. /Due South reference
Previous poll review
In the Fanfic vs Profic poll, 20% of respondents said they're pretty relaxed about prose quality if other aspects of the story capture them, 40% said they're more picky about profic, and 38% said they're picky across the board.
In ticky-boxes, Bob Dylan/Hitchhiker's Guide otters came second to hugs, 58% to 66%. Thank you for your votes! ♥
Reading
Still making my way through Refuse to Be Done by Matt Bell. It's good to dip into (I'm mostly reading it during my post-exercise stretches). I'll probably go through it again at some point and make notes.
The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold, read by Grover Gardner. Miles is a great character; I'm enjoying his POV, even if details of the interplanetary politics don't quite stick in my memory.
Siren Queen by Nghi Vo, read by Natalie Naudus. I have 5 hours left in this, but I got distracted. It was a bit "in one ear, out the other", which likely says more about me than the book.
Good old-fashioned Korean spirit by Kim Hyun Sook. Graphic novel sequel to Banned Book Club, etc. A lovely read about a university students' traditional music club taking a field trip, set in 1980s Korea under the military regime. (I actually read this a couple of weeks ago when it was due back at the library.)
Kdramas
You're Beautiful - finished my rewatch! I love this show so much. It has a bunch of tropes that have fallen out of fashion, most for very good reason(!), and the leads are absurdly bad at self-awareness and communication, and I still ahhhhhhhhhhh! SO SWEET!! SO RIDICULOUS!!
Phantom Lawyer - yayayayayayay, [SPOILER]!! I'm so happy! :D Only two episodes to go now, and it's pretty obvious how it's going to turn out, but I'll enjoy the ride. The only thing that's up in the air is whether the villain's terrible son will double down on being terrible or make a bid for redemption.
Absolute Value of Romance - someone ontv_talk mentioned this, so I gave it a try, and it's ADORABLE. It's about a teenage BL web novelist desperate for success; four hot new male teachers arrive at her high school, and she starts using them as inspiration. Naturally, her stories are acted out in her imagination... I'm so curious to see how it's going to end. (I really hope at least one of the teachers is legit gay! No spoilers, please -- I've only seen the first two episodes!)
The Red Sleeve - I don't watch a lot of historical Kdramas, but this has Junho and Lee Se-young, and a friend watched it recently, so I thought why not? I've seen an episode and a half, and it's reminding me of Love in the Moonlight, which is by no means a bad thing, though this one doesn't have the cross-dressing. Oh hey, it's from the same director as Jeongnyeon -- nice!
Lovely Runner - I lost patience with this around the end of episode 6 on the grounds that if someone is going to time-travel back into their high school body, they should retain their adult emotional intelligence. Like, shouldn't the 15-year age gap be more of an issue? And also why is she giving the male lead obviously bad (but genre-typical) life advice like "only think about yourself so you'll be happy"?! The male lead is very teenage boy (hiding his feelings, pretending to be disaffected and cool), but I quite like him. He doesn't know about the time travel, or why the girl next door is suddenly acting so weird.
The Gentlemen of Wolgyesu Tailor Shop - this is a 50-episode soap opera which I started in 2020. At the time, I wrote, "I finished episode 14 and mentally collapsed into a pile of HOW ARE THERE FORTY MORE EPISODES?!" But back then, I had no opinion about Choi Won-Young (Family by Choice, Mystic Pop-Up Bar). Now I'm skimming through the episodes (I never skim!) looking for the minor-subplot scenes of him being a ne-er-do-well, washed-up one-hit-wonder rockstar, with flowing locks and facial hair, reduced to demeaning-in-his-eyes jobs like wedding singing and supermarket promotions. His wounded dignity is my happy place.
Other TV
Finished The Pitt. The pacing of this season felt a little awkward, but I think it's just because we were watching it week by week, rather than in a continuous rush. We're going to rewatch at some point, so I'll see how I feel about it then.
The latest Trevor Noah Netflix stand-up special.
Still watching Rooster, Fringe, Bluey and Scrubs. With Ed, we've started Deadloch season 2 (no spoilers, please!) and a rewatch of People of Earth (starring Wyatt Cenac). And we've begun season 4 of Dark Winds, the cop (tribal police) show set on a Navajo reservation in the 1970s.
Audio entertainment
Deep Questions, Better Offline, Dreaming Against the Machine (the Trek episode kind of lost me), Cross Party Lines (local politics), You Can Learn Chinese (random episode), Bill and Frank's Guilt-free Pleasures, and an excellent episode of Writing Excuses about tension and release. (Several of the recent Writing Excuses have been great, actually. I love it when they get into tips and techniques.)
Writing/making things
My writing plan for last week was to finish my 520 Day fic by Friday, then go to the London Writers' Salon 24-hour sprint for most of Saturday to work on my abandoned Yuletide fic, write this update post, and write a comment for this week's Guardian rewatch post.
What actually happened was that I typed "The End" on my 520 Day fic on Friday, then spent 8 hours of the 24-hour sprint revising it. It took two and a half hours to fix the first 500 words alone! I AM SO SLOW RIGHT NOW!! But anyway, the fic is at beta. I'm happy with how the revision went and reserving judgement on the fic draft overall until I see what my beta says.
Revision techniques I experimented with:
I don't know how thoroughly I did the latter, but identifying the tension in a scene did help me amp it up in a few places -- possibly I could have taken it further.
Another thing to consider from the latest Writing Excuses episode: in terms of "Character tries something: do they succeed? Yes, BUT (something goes wrong as a consequence) or No, AND (things get worse)" -- it's the yeses and nos that control momentum. For example, if your character is constantly coming up against insurmountable obstacles, the story might feel stuck and frustrating. (This made me think of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, in which Will kept failing to achieve and being sent on side-quests, and side-quests to side-quests, to the point where his plotline felt (to me) completely directionless.)
I'm really hoping this revision approach is going to work for the Yuletide fic, too. Overall, my writing is incredibly slow this year, but I'm learning a lot and experimenting with process, especially in rewriting, and that makes me happy.
I also spent a fair chunk of the week betaing an excellent exchange fic, which I'll rec after author reveals.
Life/health/mental state things
The first half of the week, we were in a state of emergency due to a pretty bad storm; I hunkered at home (I live on a hillside) and occasionally checked the news for dramatic flood photos. The bank above the path didn't fall down, woohoo! And now it's sunny and relatively still, though the temperatures have dropped an average of about five degrees, it feels like.
Grocery prices keep climbing. I am sleeping badly and failing so hard at my to-do list (and at making a to-do list, for that matter). Meanwhile, the gutpunch of Schrodinger's oil crisis approaches at speed (or not, depending on who you talk to; our government is bafflingly, alarmingly sanguine /o\).
House
Conveniently, the storm only came from the north for the first day -- just long enough to identify that the window still had a slow leak -- useful information! After that, the storm turned southerly, and the house proved weatherproof. The leak turns out to be an easy fix (so, of course, now I'm questioning whether my windows needed reputtying at all -- maybe I just needed this leak fixed? Hindsight!).
In the meantime, my house is partially packed up and pretty dusty. I'm expecting the builders back every day for the next few days.
Link dump
Fire and Emergency New Zealand's recipes to cook if you're drunk or high (my favourite is Forbidden Lasagne) | Nathan Surendran's substack, Energy and Resilience (Aotearoa NZ focus, panic-inducing) | Oil is easily substituted, and ultimately not important (Bountiful Energy blog, April 2023; no quick/short-term solutions, natch).
Good things
Sunshine, washing, clean sheets, Halle, Andrew, biking, arms surviving the writing sprint, fic at beta. A freezer full of chicken dumplings (thanks, yesterday!me!). My sister is into op-shopping (clothes, books, jigsaws), and she comes over once a week; I just realised I can get her to take things and drop them off for me: de-junking made easy!
My car battery is flat again. *facepalm* I've bought a solar trickle charger, but I need to top up my battery before I install it, so I guess that's one task for this week. Sigh. I've considered ditching the car altogether, and relying on taxis and my bike, but there are certain circumstances (which hopefully won't recur *knock on wood*) under which I need to be able to drive. I chose my car for its exceptionally light power-steering (my arms), so unfortunately it's not interchangeable like snowmobile parts. /Due South reference
Previous poll review
In the Fanfic vs Profic poll, 20% of respondents said they're pretty relaxed about prose quality if other aspects of the story capture them, 40% said they're more picky about profic, and 38% said they're picky across the board.
In ticky-boxes, Bob Dylan/Hitchhiker's Guide otters came second to hugs, 58% to 66%. Thank you for your votes! ♥
Reading
Still making my way through Refuse to Be Done by Matt Bell. It's good to dip into (I'm mostly reading it during my post-exercise stretches). I'll probably go through it again at some point and make notes.
The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold, read by Grover Gardner. Miles is a great character; I'm enjoying his POV, even if details of the interplanetary politics don't quite stick in my memory.
Siren Queen by Nghi Vo, read by Natalie Naudus. I have 5 hours left in this, but I got distracted. It was a bit "in one ear, out the other", which likely says more about me than the book.
Good old-fashioned Korean spirit by Kim Hyun Sook. Graphic novel sequel to Banned Book Club, etc. A lovely read about a university students' traditional music club taking a field trip, set in 1980s Korea under the military regime. (I actually read this a couple of weeks ago when it was due back at the library.)
Kdramas
You're Beautiful - finished my rewatch! I love this show so much. It has a bunch of tropes that have fallen out of fashion, most for very good reason(!), and the leads are absurdly bad at self-awareness and communication, and I still ahhhhhhhhhhh! SO SWEET!! SO RIDICULOUS!!
Phantom Lawyer - yayayayayayay, [SPOILER]!! I'm so happy! :D Only two episodes to go now, and it's pretty obvious how it's going to turn out, but I'll enjoy the ride. The only thing that's up in the air is whether the villain's terrible son will double down on being terrible or make a bid for redemption.
Absolute Value of Romance - someone on
tv_talk mentioned this, so I gave it a try, and it's ADORABLE. It's about a teenage BL web novelist desperate for success; four hot new male teachers arrive at her high school, and she starts using them as inspiration. Naturally, her stories are acted out in her imagination... I'm so curious to see how it's going to end. (I really hope at least one of the teachers is legit gay! No spoilers, please -- I've only seen the first two episodes!)The Red Sleeve - I don't watch a lot of historical Kdramas, but this has Junho and Lee Se-young, and a friend watched it recently, so I thought why not? I've seen an episode and a half, and it's reminding me of Love in the Moonlight, which is by no means a bad thing, though this one doesn't have the cross-dressing. Oh hey, it's from the same director as Jeongnyeon -- nice!
Lovely Runner - I lost patience with this around the end of episode 6 on the grounds that if someone is going to time-travel back into their high school body, they should retain their adult emotional intelligence. Like, shouldn't the 15-year age gap be more of an issue? And also why is she giving the male lead obviously bad (but genre-typical) life advice like "only think about yourself so you'll be happy"?! The male lead is very teenage boy (hiding his feelings, pretending to be disaffected and cool), but I quite like him. He doesn't know about the time travel, or why the girl next door is suddenly acting so weird.
The Gentlemen of Wolgyesu Tailor Shop - this is a 50-episode soap opera which I started in 2020. At the time, I wrote, "I finished episode 14 and mentally collapsed into a pile of HOW ARE THERE FORTY MORE EPISODES?!" But back then, I had no opinion about Choi Won-Young (Family by Choice, Mystic Pop-Up Bar). Now I'm skimming through the episodes (I never skim!) looking for the minor-subplot scenes of him being a ne-er-do-well, washed-up one-hit-wonder rockstar, with flowing locks and facial hair, reduced to demeaning-in-his-eyes jobs like wedding singing and supermarket promotions. His wounded dignity is my happy place.
Other TV
Finished The Pitt. The pacing of this season felt a little awkward, but I think it's just because we were watching it week by week, rather than in a continuous rush. We're going to rewatch at some point, so I'll see how I feel about it then.
The latest Trevor Noah Netflix stand-up special.
Still watching Rooster, Fringe, Bluey and Scrubs. With Ed, we've started Deadloch season 2 (no spoilers, please!) and a rewatch of People of Earth (starring Wyatt Cenac). And we've begun season 4 of Dark Winds, the cop (tribal police) show set on a Navajo reservation in the 1970s.
Audio entertainment
Deep Questions, Better Offline, Dreaming Against the Machine (the Trek episode kind of lost me), Cross Party Lines (local politics), You Can Learn Chinese (random episode), Bill and Frank's Guilt-free Pleasures, and an excellent episode of Writing Excuses about tension and release. (Several of the recent Writing Excuses have been great, actually. I love it when they get into tips and techniques.)
Writing/making things
My writing plan for last week was to finish my 520 Day fic by Friday, then go to the London Writers' Salon 24-hour sprint for most of Saturday to work on my abandoned Yuletide fic, write this update post, and write a comment for this week's Guardian rewatch post.
What actually happened was that I typed "The End" on my 520 Day fic on Friday, then spent 8 hours of the 24-hour sprint revising it. It took two and a half hours to fix the first 500 words alone! I AM SO SLOW RIGHT NOW!! But anyway, the fic is at beta. I'm happy with how the revision went and reserving judgement on the fic draft overall until I see what my beta says.
Revision techniques I experimented with:
- Chopping the fic into small chunks/scenes (as per Refuse to Be Done).
- Considering the scenes in terms of tension (types: anticipation, conflict, juxtaposition, unanswered questions, microtension) and release (as per Writing Excuses). (I would add 'UST' to the list of tension types.)
I don't know how thoroughly I did the latter, but identifying the tension in a scene did help me amp it up in a few places -- possibly I could have taken it further.
Another thing to consider from the latest Writing Excuses episode: in terms of "Character tries something: do they succeed? Yes, BUT (something goes wrong as a consequence) or No, AND (things get worse)" -- it's the yeses and nos that control momentum. For example, if your character is constantly coming up against insurmountable obstacles, the story might feel stuck and frustrating. (This made me think of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, in which Will kept failing to achieve and being sent on side-quests, and side-quests to side-quests, to the point where his plotline felt (to me) completely directionless.)
I'm really hoping this revision approach is going to work for the Yuletide fic, too. Overall, my writing is incredibly slow this year, but I'm learning a lot and experimenting with process, especially in rewriting, and that makes me happy.
I also spent a fair chunk of the week betaing an excellent exchange fic, which I'll rec after author reveals.
Life/health/mental state things
The first half of the week, we were in a state of emergency due to a pretty bad storm; I hunkered at home (I live on a hillside) and occasionally checked the news for dramatic flood photos. The bank above the path didn't fall down, woohoo! And now it's sunny and relatively still, though the temperatures have dropped an average of about five degrees, it feels like.
Grocery prices keep climbing. I am sleeping badly and failing so hard at my to-do list (and at making a to-do list, for that matter). Meanwhile, the gutpunch of Schrodinger's oil crisis approaches at speed (or not, depending on who you talk to; our government is bafflingly, alarmingly sanguine /o\).
House
Conveniently, the storm only came from the north for the first day -- just long enough to identify that the window still had a slow leak -- useful information! After that, the storm turned southerly, and the house proved weatherproof. The leak turns out to be an easy fix (so, of course, now I'm questioning whether my windows needed reputtying at all -- maybe I just needed this leak fixed? Hindsight!).
In the meantime, my house is partially packed up and pretty dusty. I'm expecting the builders back every day for the next few days.
Link dump
Fire and Emergency New Zealand's recipes to cook if you're drunk or high (my favourite is Forbidden Lasagne) | Nathan Surendran's substack, Energy and Resilience (Aotearoa NZ focus, panic-inducing) | Oil is easily substituted, and ultimately not important (Bountiful Energy blog, April 2023; no quick/short-term solutions, natch).
Good things
Sunshine, washing, clean sheets, Halle, Andrew, biking, arms surviving the writing sprint, fic at beta. A freezer full of chicken dumplings (thanks, yesterday!me!). My sister is into op-shopping (clothes, books, jigsaws), and she comes over once a week; I just realised I can get her to take things and drop them off for me: de-junking made easy!
Poll #34526 Search engine recs
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 48
What search engine(s) do you use most often?
View Answers
DuckDuckGo
22 (45.8%)
StartPage
5 (10.4%)
Google
24 (50.0%)
Bing
1 (2.1%)
Ecosia
2 (4.2%)
Qwant
1 (2.1%)
other (rec me your superior search engine)
3 (6.2%)
ticky-box full of apocalypse fatigue
26 (54.2%)
ticky-box full of parrots doing clumsy acrobatics in the very tops of trees
21 (43.8%)
ticky-box of having a fic at beta
6 (12.5%)
ticky-box full of construction disruption
12 (25.0%)
ticky-box full of hugs and more hugs
33 (68.8%)
3 Weeks for Dreamwidth - Writing offer & meme
Apr. 26th, 2026 01:22 pmpetraFirst off, an offer for 3weeks4dreamwidth -- prompt me for a drabble or a poem (probably a limerick) in a fandom or crossover of fandoms that I know, any time in the next three weeks, and ye shall receive!
For those of you who have oft perused my fandom's list, the new entry is: T. Kingfisher's Paladins series, #1-3. I have not dug into the whole universe yet and I have #4 on hold from the library, but I got distracted when it took a while to come in.
*
In honor of3weeks4dreamwidth, a meme that sanguinity gakked from regshoe, who had it from goodbyebird:
Reply to this post saying 'icon', and I will tell you my favourite icon of yours. Then post this to your own journal using your own favourite icon if you're one of those inhuman things that are actually capable of choosing betweenYOUR PRECIOUS BABIES! userpics.
*
Regarding my favorite icon, which is the one I use Everywhere, I have finally gotten around to putting the source page's relevant bit on Dreamwidth:
I don't remember why I saturated it slightly more than the original art. I guess I needed the red to pop.
Tim is just So Heterosexual. Absolutely. Why would anyone ever think otherwise? Seriously, DC Editorial, took ya long enough.
Also, I cannot read that page without wanting Dick/Babs/Tim, and I cannot think of that threesome without thinking ofminoanmiss, so I guess now my default icon comes with heartache. That definitely doesn't mean I'm going to change it -- I know the grief will become more nost and less algia in time -- but right now, damn.
3weeks4dreamwidth -- prompt me for a drabble or a poem (probably a limerick) in a fandom or crossover of fandoms that I know, any time in the next three weeks, and ye shall receive!For those of you who have oft perused my fandom's list, the new entry is: T. Kingfisher's Paladins series, #1-3. I have not dug into the whole universe yet and I have #4 on hold from the library, but I got distracted when it took a while to come in.
*
In honor of
3weeks4dreamwidth, a meme that sanguinity gakked from regshoe, who had it from goodbyebird:Reply to this post saying 'icon', and I will tell you my favourite icon of yours. Then post this to your own journal using your own favourite icon if you're one of those inhuman things that are actually capable of choosing between
*
Regarding my favorite icon, which is the one I use Everywhere, I have finally gotten around to putting the source page's relevant bit on Dreamwidth:
I don't remember why I saturated it slightly more than the original art. I guess I needed the red to pop.
Tim is just So Heterosexual. Absolutely. Why would anyone ever think otherwise? Seriously, DC Editorial, took ya long enough.
Also, I cannot read that page without wanting Dick/Babs/Tim, and I cannot think of that threesome without thinking of
minoanmiss, so I guess now my default icon comes with heartache. That definitely doesn't mean I'm going to change it -- I know the grief will become more nost and less algia in time -- but right now, damn.
Yuletide request #1 for 2026
Apr. 24th, 2026 01:31 pmpetraThe Pushcart War by Jean Merrill + ... well really I would take just about any fictional or fictionalized city, so that's why I feel comfortable floating it as a possibility for Yuletide.
The original inspiration was "The Pushcart War set in Gotham City." I would take just about any year setting. The OG era. The social media version, complete with vigilantes with pea pin shooters.
jadelennox suggests that Alfred and General Anna are old besties, and I concur.
But, in the grand tradition of my Yuletide requests, typing this up makes me realize how much I want this story in any fictionalized 'verse of which I am sufficiently knowledgeable.
The Rivers of London take sides! You know Lady Ty is for the truckers.
Mountie under suspicion! Benton Fraser seen with pea-tack shooter! Claims it is reusable straw. Is Big Red Green?
Mélusine + trucks. Not necessarily including our protags from canon; the city is sufficiently a character to count for my purposes.
The Slow Horses investigate the pea-tack problem with their usual bumbling flair.
The Pushcart War was part of what spurred the Earth of the Expanse to implement UBI. Eh? Ehhhhh?
Manchester in 1973 is not maybe the best place, but London in 1981? Give me the Alex Drake peapin saga.
Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler III vs. trucks? :D If Palpatine can find time to reproduce, so can Throat.
The original inspiration was "The Pushcart War set in Gotham City." I would take just about any year setting. The OG era. The social media version, complete with vigilantes with pea pin shooters.
jadelennox suggests that Alfred and General Anna are old besties, and I concur.But, in the grand tradition of my Yuletide requests, typing this up makes me realize how much I want this story in any fictionalized 'verse of which I am sufficiently knowledgeable.
The Rivers of London take sides! You know Lady Ty is for the truckers.
Mountie under suspicion! Benton Fraser seen with pea-tack shooter! Claims it is reusable straw. Is Big Red Green?
Mélusine + trucks. Not necessarily including our protags from canon; the city is sufficiently a character to count for my purposes.
The Slow Horses investigate the pea-tack problem with their usual bumbling flair.
The Pushcart War was part of what spurred the Earth of the Expanse to implement UBI. Eh? Ehhhhh?
Manchester in 1973 is not maybe the best place, but London in 1981? Give me the Alex Drake peapin saga.
Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler III vs. trucks? :D If Palpatine can find time to reproduce, so can Throat.
What I'm Doing Wednesday: Earth Day edition
Apr. 22nd, 2026 04:42 pmsageThe Vampire Lestat new trailer
gnu MinoanMiss/Rubynye
update on Ny's cause of death: she had an asymptomatic covid infection, which caused the heart attacks, which caused the brain edema.
Covid: Speaking Out About Rubynye (1268 words) by werpiper
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Original Work, Public Health - Fandom
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Characters: Me | Fanwork Creator(s), Rubynye
Additional Tags: COVID-19, Death
Summary:
( books (Cline, Cline, Jackson Bennett, Puhak, Kingfisher, Wodehouse) )
yarning
2 kickbunny orders! one green and one gray. Discovered late Saturday that I didn't have enough light green or enough gray yarn to finish either bunny. I got the green at walmart, but I had to order the gray from Amazon. (Evil empires either way, but cheaper than any other option.) Still putting them together, slower than usual, due to busted thumb.
healthcrap
Tendinosis in my left thumb again, from distal all the way to the wrist. Really super annoying. Almost as annoying as going to the allergist for a shot and being denied one because I'm having to use albuterol with my symbicort at night to stop me from coughing all night. And there was no earlier appt for me to move mine to (a month out), so I guess I'm not getting back to maintenance dose after all. She did prescribe me some nasal antihistamine I forget the name of, and they're delivering it, so I don't have to drive all the way over there again. SIGH.
( astrology )
#resist
May 1: No Kings 4: the general strike
I hope all of you are doing well! Happy Earth Day! I hope y'all can enjoy a bit of nature today! <333
gnu MinoanMiss/Rubynye
update on Ny's cause of death: she had an asymptomatic covid infection, which caused the heart attacks, which caused the brain edema.
Covid: Speaking Out About Rubynye (1268 words) by werpiper
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Original Work, Public Health - Fandom
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Characters: Me | Fanwork Creator(s), Rubynye
Additional Tags: COVID-19, Death
Summary:
Dearly loved fandom artist and author Rubynye died of covid, at age fifty.
She was a precious friend to me, and I talked about this at a memorial held for her online six weeks after. These are my notes.
GNU Ny.
( books (Cline, Cline, Jackson Bennett, Puhak, Kingfisher, Wodehouse) )
yarning
2 kickbunny orders! one green and one gray. Discovered late Saturday that I didn't have enough light green or enough gray yarn to finish either bunny. I got the green at walmart, but I had to order the gray from Amazon. (Evil empires either way, but cheaper than any other option.) Still putting them together, slower than usual, due to busted thumb.
healthcrap
Tendinosis in my left thumb again, from distal all the way to the wrist. Really super annoying. Almost as annoying as going to the allergist for a shot and being denied one because I'm having to use albuterol with my symbicort at night to stop me from coughing all night. And there was no earlier appt for me to move mine to (a month out), so I guess I'm not getting back to maintenance dose after all. She did prescribe me some nasal antihistamine I forget the name of, and they're delivering it, so I don't have to drive all the way over there again. SIGH.
( astrology )
#resist
May 1: No Kings 4: the general strike
I hope all of you are doing well! Happy Earth Day! I hope y'all can enjoy a bit of nature today! <333