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healingmirth

Jukebox 2025!

Jul. 14th, 2025 07:32 pm
alchemise: Faith, dancing (AtS: dance)
[personal profile] alchemise
There are some great works in the collection this year. I received a lovely romance story for Barenaked Ladies - Lovers in a Dangerous Time:

Nothing Worth Having (1902 words) by felcast
Fandom: Lovers in a Dangerous Time - Barenaked Ladies (Song)
Rating: Mature
Additional Tags: Post-Apocalypse Glamping
Summary: What do you do when everyone but your girlfriend vanishes overnight? According to Molls, you go find ‘em.

Other works I really enjoyed:

Last One on the Ground (4 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Abandoned Town - The Smooth Maria (Song)
Rating: General Audiences
Additional Tags: Art

Perigee (1025 words) by galaxyofroses
Fandom: Bad Moon Rising - Creedence Clearwater Revival (Song)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Additional Tags: Magic, POV Second Person, Apocalypse, Horror
Summary: The moon is a sly bitch with a slantwise smile.

Heartlock (1226 words) by felcast
Fandom: Lock-Keeper - Stan Rogers (Song)
Rating: Mature
Summary: I wouldn't trade your life for one hour of home.

Living Here Today (1431 words) by Iseult_Variante
Fandom: Mr. Blue Sky - Electric Light Orchestra (Song)
Rating: General Audiences
Additional Tags: Magical Realism, Weather, Optimism, Having a Nice Day
Summary: And don't you know
It's a beautiful new day?
Hey...

Ironheart

Jul. 12th, 2025 08:50 am
scaramouche: a bad pun on shellfish (you make me wanna)
[personal profile] scaramouche
Ironheart is one of those shows where you can see the seams of events stitched together so that the plot can happen, but the plot itself is so different and daring for an MCU property, that you're (well, I) am rather annoyed that it wasn't served better in the execution. Because wow!

I watched 2.5 episodes, got stressed out, watched the Murderbot finale and gross-cried over that, then after a hangover got back to being stressed by Ironheart all the way to its finale, which has lingered with me after. I think somewhere on Riri's dozenth bad decision (I'm not actually counting) I realized that I hadn't felt this kind of tension while watching an MCU property in a good long while, and bracing myself for the usual MCU-type resolution where the hero gets their upgrade before the final battle, the villain's grey areas are flattened in the final act, and the hero makes the right choice. Ironheart does only one out of three.

Riri gets to be messy, traumatized, selfish, brilliant and distant. Her tunnel vision, though started for noble reasons (to protect her loved ones) has led her to burning bridges and becoming an anti-hero at best, and someone the other Avengers would hunt down to stop. At her lowest point, her love interest is brought to her for the chance to give comfort, and you'd think this is the turning point of Riri's emotional journey, but instead it makes things worse.

The bones are so good, which is why I wish there was more meat on it, especially to dive into Riri's justification of her choices, and the smoothening out of the moments where things happen because they have to (everything with "Joe", honestly). Still, salute for not taking the easiest route in telling a story about Riri.

media update? nah

Jul. 10th, 2025 12:51 pm
omens: baby Thor says "I like you!" (baby thor)
[personal profile] omens
Nothing to report re: media, as I'm in the middle of a book (Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid) and nothing else! (Aside from a lot of language stuff, many many many language stuff.)

But! Ghost was by! If you recall, I was very worried about her super swollen face last time I saw her (the 21st) and on the 7th she was by, finally. All healed up and everything!



LOL the haze is the petunias she's standing behind - fucked my white balance, but I thought it looked cool anyway:



It has been chaos around here lately, but HIIII

sineala: (Avengers: Tony: And there you are)
[personal profile] sineala
Establishing Shot (7854 words) by Sineala
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Iron Man (Comics)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Henry Hellrung & Tony Stark
Characters: Henry Hellrung, Tony Stark
Additional Tags: Character Study, First Meetings, Alcohol, Acting, POV Outsider, Comic: Iron Man Vol. 1 (1968)
Summary: When Henry Hellrung lands the role of Tony Stark on the upcoming Avengers TV show, he's thrilled. But first, he needs to know what makes this guy tick. But when the cameras are on... Tony's acting. Who is Tony Stark, really? Henry meets Tony in person, to see if he can learn the truth. What he finds is something he never expected.

It's been a while since I posted a fic, hasn't it? This is actually a gen fic written for the zine Transistor-Powered Heart.

It's also not actually as long as it looks; the second chapter is a bonus version with several deleted scenes.

Wednesday Reading Meme July 9 2025

Jul. 9th, 2025 01:34 pm
kitewithfish: (Default)
[personal profile] kitewithfish
What I’ve Read
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro -
By god, what a book, what a monster of a book! Like many, I picked this up because the lure of a good book club is a siren song – the podcast 99% Invisible decided to do a year long project on this book, one extra episode a month to discuss the book and have a conversation with someone about it. (They got great people, too, including the author!)

I fell behind schedule of the podcast but kept listening and reading on my own, and eventually, to finish this book, I ended up owning it in paperback, ebook, and three audiobooks of 1/3rd of the book each. 1200 pages makes a lot of audiobook!

This book is huge story look at one man’s life in public administration of the parks and roads and buildings of New York City. At every stage, the power of an unscrupulous, brilliant, and determined mind is at play in every project he sets his hand to, and the resulting works show his massive ego and talent and all his bigotries. Robert Moses was a fascinating and complicated man, and his legacy is fascinating and complicated. It’s also a key lesson in how difficult it is to get out of power someone who is entrenched and well supported. It also shows someone who’s unethical in small things will be unethical in big ones.

Key thoughts: If you get started on a project, public figures are more embarrassed by half finished project that wastes moderate amounts of money than by one that goes wildly over budget but gets completed. Public goodwill can be purchased by getting the papers on your side, but only for so long. You can’t just be right, you have to be smart.

As a reading experience, Caro is a skilled guide thru a tangled mess of history, legislation, and construction projects. It really can just be picked up and read chapter by chapter – he’ll give you the context you need to understand. Caro’s got a great sense for a revealing anecdote and occasionally a real admiration for the people he writes about as skilled political actors.

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
– a very decent murder mystery in a fantasy world with some good characters and fun world building. Both the main characters and the world have mysteries built into them, and I found the whole thing very engaging. I don’t want to say more lest I spoil things.

Star Trek Lower Decks Warp Your Own Way by Ryan North and Chris Fenoglio – A graphic novel in the Choose Your Own Adventures style that is also a very fun Star Trek legacy piece. I don’t know Lower Decks at all but this was a fun introduction. Clearly made by people who love and appreciate Star Trek’s weirdnesses and with a eye on what makes someone heroic. I will say, it was a kind of confusing read – the Choose Your Own Adventure elements sometimes interact with the text, so you have to go thru several branches before getting enough information to figure out how to pick the right branch. It’s an iterative experience, but well written and charming enough to Trekkie that I did not get tired of it.

What I’m Reading
The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo – A reasonably interesting premise but I feel like the story is being weighed down a bit. I am about 25% in and we still haven’t gotten the main character to the Big Meeting.

Someone You Can Build a Nest in by John Wiswell – A weird and gooey book with a monster main character.

What I’ll Read Next


The Deep Dark
Track Changes
Alien Clay
Service Model
Monstress, Vol. 9: The Possessed
Navigational Entanglements
The Butcher of the Forest
The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain
Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right
The Brides of High Hill
The Tusks of Extinction
“Charting the Cliff: An Investigation into the 2023 Hugo Nomination Statistics”
“Signs of Life”
“By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars”
“The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video”
“Loneliness Universe”
“The 2023 Hugo Awards: A Report on Censorship and Exclusion”
“The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea”
“Lake of Souls”

(no subject)

Jul. 8th, 2025 03:41 pm
summerstorm: (Default)
[personal profile] summerstorm
Does anybody need someone to copy-edit/proofread a blog post or article or TTRPG notes or something? I'll do like 1k for, I don't know, 10 bucks? I have a really hard time making shit up for portfolio reasons and setting up a Fiverr gig requires samples of your work. Gross.

I'm probably not even going to use that, because I'm pretty sure I can offer that sort of work on Ko-Fi and I hate the shit out of content mills, but all the same.

Today's D20 list (where I write down twenty things and then roll a d20 to see what I do next) is mostly research; so far I've compiled a few examples of printable item and spell cards for D&D, done the above, and found out the reason Inprnt wouldn't accept my files is that I've been saving JPGs in Apple's Display P3 color profile. I thought they weren't big enough, which is probably ridiculous, I have a fucking Canon DSLR.

I don't think I talked about this here, but back in May my mom stopped receiving her minimal basic income, so we're surviving on kindness and savings, and there's not that much in savings. If anyone wants to help out, my Paypal account is battlesinthemorning@gmail.com. Literally every bit helps. But I am also trying to do actual work without driving myself up the wall. It's hard because every time my mom asks my sister for money*, my mental health takes five steps back, but I'm trying.

* venting )