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fandomsecrets2025-10-05 02:26 pm
case) wrote in fandomsecrets2025-10-05 02:26 pm[ SECRET POST #6848 ]
⌈ Secret Post #6848 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
01.
( More! )
Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #978.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
oursin (oursin) wrote2025-10-05 07:08 pm
oursin) wrote2025-10-05 07:08 pmCulinary
Last week's bread had a mould episode, chiz, so I made a loaf of Dove's Farm Organic Seedhouse Bread Flour, crust sprung a bit while baking, I think due to age of yeast, but otherwise okay.
Friday night supper, penne with sauce of roasted red peppers in brine whizzed in blender + chopped Calabrian salami.
Saturday breakfast rolls: brown grated apple, strong brown flour, maple syrup (also new batch of yeast): v nice.
Today's lunch: tempeh stirfried with sugar snap peas and a sauce of soy sauce, maple syrup, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, cornflour mixed in water, crushed garlic and minced ginger: am not sure the tempeh was supposed to crumble like that during cooking?? served with sticky rice with lime leaves and chicory quartered, healthygrilled in pumpkinseed oil and splashed with lemon and lime balsamic vinegar.
eatdrinkmerrymod (eatdrinkmerrymod) wrote in eatdrinkmakemerry2025-10-05 11:07 am
eatdrinkmerrymod) wrote in eatdrinkmakemerry2025-10-05 11:07 am10 hours left!
10 hours left in signups for Eat Drink & Make Merry! here's the signup form.
beccaelizabeth (beccaelizabeth) wrote2025-10-05 05:45 pm
beccaelizabeth) wrote2025-10-05 05:45 pmCore difficulty keeps having surprise bad guys
Today I beat the Darkness in the Midnight Fane in Wrath of the Righteous. ... I think it was Playful but there are a bunch of repeat Darkness so I do not remember.
First time I tried it was TPK and I realised I was going to need all the potion and wand and scroll based help I could get. Then I realised I had three scrolls of Mass Heal. After that it only took a bit of summoned spiders, some massive damage to the wolf sidekick (fixable with Raise Dead and some restoration), and two scrolls.
That fight has been so much harder so many times.
Online guides are dumb, the ones I found completely ignore the damage you get from healing spells. Pillar of Life makes a grand trap for dumb heals by negative fights, you just set them out and trigger the fight and run through them. Mass Heal is complete wipe out for undead. So that's two of the Core achievements sorted.
It didn't go bing today so I am hoping it will when I load it next.
... so much to redo if it did not bing.
It still didn't give me my achievements for killing Chained Darkness on core in the DLC, and that was really difficult.
It did give me a very nice belt of physical perfection in a glowy rift thingy, as a reward for doing Inevitable Excess on Core.
... I should have made a note of which name did that. Shall only need it again on a different play through but still.
Also today food arrived and I have remembered that putting some salad in my sandwiches makes them A+ good. My microwave is being replaced on Tuesday so I shall have several more meals to demonstrate this to myself.
This is not a wildly exciting life but it suffices for now.
First time I tried it was TPK and I realised I was going to need all the potion and wand and scroll based help I could get. Then I realised I had three scrolls of Mass Heal. After that it only took a bit of summoned spiders, some massive damage to the wolf sidekick (fixable with Raise Dead and some restoration), and two scrolls.
That fight has been so much harder so many times.
Online guides are dumb, the ones I found completely ignore the damage you get from healing spells. Pillar of Life makes a grand trap for dumb heals by negative fights, you just set them out and trigger the fight and run through them. Mass Heal is complete wipe out for undead. So that's two of the Core achievements sorted.
It didn't go bing today so I am hoping it will when I load it next.
... so much to redo if it did not bing.
It still didn't give me my achievements for killing Chained Darkness on core in the DLC, and that was really difficult.
It did give me a very nice belt of physical perfection in a glowy rift thingy, as a reward for doing Inevitable Excess on Core.
... I should have made a note of which name did that. Shall only need it again on a different play through but still.
Also today food arrived and I have remembered that putting some salad in my sandwiches makes them A+ good. My microwave is being replaced on Tuesday so I shall have several more meals to demonstrate this to myself.
This is not a wildly exciting life but it suffices for now.
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flamingsword (flamingsword) wrote2025-10-05 11:05 am
flamingsword) wrote2025-10-05 11:05 amEntry tags:
Poem-posting, for morale
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/56332/dog-in-bed
Dog In Bed by Joyce Sidman
Nose tucked under tail,
you are a warm, furred planet
centered in my bed.
All night I orbit, tangle-limbed,
in the slim space
allotted to me.
If I accidentally
bump you from sleep,
you shift, groan,
drape your chin on my hip.
O, that languid, movie-star drape!
I can never resist it.
Digging my fingers into your fur,
kneading,
I wonder:
How do you dream?
What do you adore?
Why should your black silk ears
feel like happiness?
This is how it is with love.
Once invited,
it steps in gently,
circles twice,
and takes up as much space
as you will give it.
Dog In Bed by Joyce Sidman
Nose tucked under tail,
you are a warm, furred planet
centered in my bed.
All night I orbit, tangle-limbed,
in the slim space
allotted to me.
If I accidentally
bump you from sleep,
you shift, groan,
drape your chin on my hip.
O, that languid, movie-star drape!
I can never resist it.
Digging my fingers into your fur,
kneading,
I wonder:
How do you dream?
What do you adore?
Why should your black silk ears
feel like happiness?
This is how it is with love.
Once invited,
it steps in gently,
circles twice,
and takes up as much space
as you will give it.
lightreads (lightreads) wrote2025-10-05 11:03 am
lightreads) wrote2025-10-05 11:03 amEntry tags:
The Adventure of the Demonic Ox by Lois McMaster Bujold
3/5. Another novella in this fantasy series about the scholar who has a demon in his head. This one about a misadventure with teens in tow, and how families grow and change, and young people starting to find their way.
Pleasant, but I continue to think that there is a tidiness to these books that keeps me from really liking them. It’s not just the knowledge that everything will work out in the end, which it generally does, but occasionally not. I think it’s that she’s set up this theological system to be a bit . . . I don’t know. Categorical? Hogwarts house-y? Overly interventionist? IDK, these books feel terminally undangerous in the midst of dangerous things happening. Angsty teens figure out their life plans in 30,000 words or less. Everyone has a salutary lesson. Go home. I’m not expressing it well. Whatever it is, I think it emanates from the theology, and it renders these books just a little bit too neat, too easy.
Pleasant, but I continue to think that there is a tidiness to these books that keeps me from really liking them. It’s not just the knowledge that everything will work out in the end, which it generally does, but occasionally not. I think it’s that she’s set up this theological system to be a bit . . . I don’t know. Categorical? Hogwarts house-y? Overly interventionist? IDK, these books feel terminally undangerous in the midst of dangerous things happening. Angsty teens figure out their life plans in 30,000 words or less. Everyone has a salutary lesson. Go home. I’m not expressing it well. Whatever it is, I think it emanates from the theology, and it renders these books just a little bit too neat, too easy.
marycatelli (marycatelli) wrote2025-10-05 10:59 am
marycatelli) wrote2025-10-05 10:59 amEntry tags:
vignettes
This week's prompt is:
suspect 🤔
Anyone can join, with a 50-word creative fiction vignette in the comments. Your vignette does not have to include the prompt term. Any (G or PG) definition of the word can be used.
suspect 🤔
Anyone can join, with a 50-word creative fiction vignette in the comments. Your vignette does not have to include the prompt term. Any (G or PG) definition of the word can be used.
Riona (rionaleonhart) wrote2025-10-05 03:48 pm
rionaleonhart) wrote2025-10-05 03:48 pmEntry tags:
Nothing's Like Before.
For each of my major fandoms, I do a short writeup talking about how it fits into my fandom history. A fandom qualifies as 'major' if I've written five fics for it, or ten thousand words across at least three fics.
With my recent fills for the kinkmeme, Kingdom Hearts now qualifies!
Kingdom Hearts
When I was in my early teens, I got most of my videogame news from magazines - my brother and I used to buy Official PlayStation 2 Magazine UK and PSM2 every month - so one of those magazines (most likely the official one) was where I first heard that there was an upcoming Disney and Square collaboration. As a Final Fantasy fan, I was surprised but intrigued; it sounded like fun! The magazine had some art of Sora on Destiny Islands, and I cut it out and put it up on the wall of my childhood bedroom.
The original Kingdom Hearts came out when I was fourteen, Sora's age, so I was exactly the right audience for it! I absolutely loved it. It was fun and charming, and I shipped Sora and Riku hard. I read a lot of Sora/Riku fanfiction on fanfiction.net, although the Sora/Riku writers of the time tended to bash Kairi to a pretty ludicrous extent; I didn't have much interest in Kairi at the time, but I could see that the monstrous character she was presented as in fanfiction wasn't Kairi!
As further Kingdom Hearts games came out, my investment only grew. The cast expanded, the plot became steadily more involved, and the series started to focus heavily on memory and identity, which are a couple of my favourite themes in fiction.
I've played and hugely enjoyed most games in the Kingdom Hearts series, and I have to give 358/2 Days a special mention for being the hardest a videogame has ever made me cry, but Dream Drop Distance is my favourite. It's fun to play, it lets you explore new worlds rather than just reusing old ones, and, most importantly, it contains plenty of Riku/Sora material.
Although I've loved the Kingdom Hearts series consistently for a couple of decades, my fics for it have been scattered and rare. I wrote my first Kingdom Hearts fic in the June of 2003, my second in 2009, my third in 2019, and my fourth and fifth here, in late 2025. I've always wanted to write more for it, but it's so sprawling and confusing that it's hard to know where to start!
Favourite character: I mean, Squall Leonhart is technically a character in the Kingdom Hearts universe, and you know how I feel about Squall Leonhart. But my favourite Kingdom Hearts character is Riku. He spent the entire first game making terrible decisions and has quietly hated himself for it ever since, and that's what I want in a character.
Favourite pairing: Sora/Riku must have been one of the earliest pairings I ever got really invested in, and every new Kingdom Hearts instalment since has only made them shippier. I've said before that one of my favourite pairing dynamics is 'I'm quietly and intensely in love with you, but I don't ever expect my feelings to be returned, and I don't have any plans to pursue you romantically. I'm just in love with you; it's an inescapable fact of my life,' and I wrote that description while thinking of Riku's feelings towards Sora.
Number of words written: 9,303, across five fics. Unusually, I've never written from the same character's perspective twice in my Kingdom Hearts fanfiction; I've got one Kingdom Hearts fic from Sora's perspective, one from Kairi's, one from Roxas's, one from Riku's, and one - please don't ask questions - from the perspective of real-life stage magician Derren Brown.
Snippet: I've got a few unfinished attempts at Kingdom Hearts fanfiction lying around. Here's a snippet I scribbled down around 2021 for a never-finished fic, with the slightly silly concept 'Riku confesses his love, and Sora is absolutely mystified because he had literally no idea it was possible for boys to fall in love with each other'.
( Kingdom Hearts unfinished snippet, Sora/Riku, 2021. )
With my recent fills for the kinkmeme, Kingdom Hearts now qualifies!
Kingdom Hearts
When I was in my early teens, I got most of my videogame news from magazines - my brother and I used to buy Official PlayStation 2 Magazine UK and PSM2 every month - so one of those magazines (most likely the official one) was where I first heard that there was an upcoming Disney and Square collaboration. As a Final Fantasy fan, I was surprised but intrigued; it sounded like fun! The magazine had some art of Sora on Destiny Islands, and I cut it out and put it up on the wall of my childhood bedroom.
The original Kingdom Hearts came out when I was fourteen, Sora's age, so I was exactly the right audience for it! I absolutely loved it. It was fun and charming, and I shipped Sora and Riku hard. I read a lot of Sora/Riku fanfiction on fanfiction.net, although the Sora/Riku writers of the time tended to bash Kairi to a pretty ludicrous extent; I didn't have much interest in Kairi at the time, but I could see that the monstrous character she was presented as in fanfiction wasn't Kairi!
As further Kingdom Hearts games came out, my investment only grew. The cast expanded, the plot became steadily more involved, and the series started to focus heavily on memory and identity, which are a couple of my favourite themes in fiction.
I've played and hugely enjoyed most games in the Kingdom Hearts series, and I have to give 358/2 Days a special mention for being the hardest a videogame has ever made me cry, but Dream Drop Distance is my favourite. It's fun to play, it lets you explore new worlds rather than just reusing old ones, and, most importantly, it contains plenty of Riku/Sora material.
Although I've loved the Kingdom Hearts series consistently for a couple of decades, my fics for it have been scattered and rare. I wrote my first Kingdom Hearts fic in the June of 2003, my second in 2009, my third in 2019, and my fourth and fifth here, in late 2025. I've always wanted to write more for it, but it's so sprawling and confusing that it's hard to know where to start!
Favourite character: I mean, Squall Leonhart is technically a character in the Kingdom Hearts universe, and you know how I feel about Squall Leonhart. But my favourite Kingdom Hearts character is Riku. He spent the entire first game making terrible decisions and has quietly hated himself for it ever since, and that's what I want in a character.
Favourite pairing: Sora/Riku must have been one of the earliest pairings I ever got really invested in, and every new Kingdom Hearts instalment since has only made them shippier. I've said before that one of my favourite pairing dynamics is 'I'm quietly and intensely in love with you, but I don't ever expect my feelings to be returned, and I don't have any plans to pursue you romantically. I'm just in love with you; it's an inescapable fact of my life,' and I wrote that description while thinking of Riku's feelings towards Sora.
Number of words written: 9,303, across five fics. Unusually, I've never written from the same character's perspective twice in my Kingdom Hearts fanfiction; I've got one Kingdom Hearts fic from Sora's perspective, one from Kairi's, one from Roxas's, one from Riku's, and one - please don't ask questions - from the perspective of real-life stage magician Derren Brown.
Snippet: I've got a few unfinished attempts at Kingdom Hearts fanfiction lying around. Here's a snippet I scribbled down around 2021 for a never-finished fic, with the slightly silly concept 'Riku confesses his love, and Sora is absolutely mystified because he had literally no idea it was possible for boys to fall in love with each other'.
( Kingdom Hearts unfinished snippet, Sora/Riku, 2021. )
a million times a trillion more (dolorosa_12) wrote2025-10-05 03:42 pm
dolorosa_12) wrote2025-10-05 03:42 pmA language not made of words; everything in the world understands it
Matthias has been away in Germany since Friday to celebrate his 25-year high school reunion, and the combination of being on my own with no plans other than some scheduled classes and swims in the gym, and the storm on Saturday gave me all the encouragement I needed to have a very cosy weekend. To be fair, I don't need much encouragement on that score — it worries me a bit how good I am at being on my own! Putting that aside, everything worked out perfectly. I felt particularly smug that on Saturday I was able to finish up at the gym at 11.45, dash home, dash out to the market and do all my grocery shopping, plus stand in an endless queue for Tibetan food from the food truck, pick up said food, and make it back through the door of my house at 1pm, at exactly the point that it started raining and howling with wind.
I didn't leave the house for the rest of the day, but simply lay around in the living room, with the string lights on, candles burning, drinking tea and rereading A Little Princess (Frances Hodgson Burnett), a massive childhood favourite of mine that I don't think I've revisited for at least fifteen years. The blunt racism and classism was as I remembered, but the story itself: of book-devouring, wise, and compassionate young Sara Crewe's riches-to-rags-to-riches-again fall and rise, against the backdrop of a cloistered Edwardian girls' boarding school run by the grasping, vulgar Dickensian villain Miss Minchin remained as compelling as ever. Sara's ability to escape her circumstances through the powerful world of her imagination was what spoke to me the most as a bookish child who lived very much in my own mind, and I enjoyed it immensely on this reread. Although it feels more like a winter book to me, I'd deliberately picked it up for this storm-tossed weekend, because in my memory, it's a book that plays heavily on the senses: warm fires and richly-described meals set against inadequately insulated attic bedrooms, and the dismal fog and biting cold of the streets of Edwardian London — and this indeed proved to be the case. I'm not sure if it's a book to pick up for the first time in adulthood, but if it was a childhood favourite, it's worth revisiting.
Other than reading sentimental childhood favourite books, I've spent a lot of time this weekend on a marathon catching up to all the episodes of the Rebecca Fraimow/Emily Tesh Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones podcast. (I'm only just at the start of season 2 — I was very much behind — and had hoped to make it to the 3-hour-long Fire and Hemlock episode, but that's not likely at this point since it's 3.30pm on Sunday afternoon.) I'm enjoying it immensely — the discussion hits the sweet spot of enthusiastic affection and depth of analysis in a way that I feel is rare in popular literary criticism at the moment, and it manages to make every episode engaging, even if you haven't read the source material (as I hadn't for most of the 1970s books — although now I want to). The two hosts are clearly having a great time, and the Hugo award for the podcast is very well deserved.
The podcast was the perfect accompaniment to the truly ridiculous amount of cooking I've been doing this weekend. This morning I went out into the garden and agressively pruned the tomato plants, including removing large numbers of green tomatoes (since I don't think there's much chance anything will ripen at this point). These I have put into preserving jars as three batches of fermented tomatoes — one type uses ripe red tomatoes, and the other ferments them while they're still green (for this I had so many tomatoes that I had to spread them across two massive 1L jars). I'm also slow-cooking a stew (my whole house smells of garlic and red wine), I made pickled cucumbers with chilli, and am going to infuse a bottle of bourbon with fresh peach (thanks for the tip,lyr). I'll update the post with a photoset once all the ferments are sorted out in their jars; the whole process has been incredibly satisfying. I may have had zero luck with growing anything other than tomatoes this year — but oh, what tomatoes they have been!
Update: gardening/preserving photoset here!
I didn't leave the house for the rest of the day, but simply lay around in the living room, with the string lights on, candles burning, drinking tea and rereading A Little Princess (Frances Hodgson Burnett), a massive childhood favourite of mine that I don't think I've revisited for at least fifteen years. The blunt racism and classism was as I remembered, but the story itself: of book-devouring, wise, and compassionate young Sara Crewe's riches-to-rags-to-riches-again fall and rise, against the backdrop of a cloistered Edwardian girls' boarding school run by the grasping, vulgar Dickensian villain Miss Minchin remained as compelling as ever. Sara's ability to escape her circumstances through the powerful world of her imagination was what spoke to me the most as a bookish child who lived very much in my own mind, and I enjoyed it immensely on this reread. Although it feels more like a winter book to me, I'd deliberately picked it up for this storm-tossed weekend, because in my memory, it's a book that plays heavily on the senses: warm fires and richly-described meals set against inadequately insulated attic bedrooms, and the dismal fog and biting cold of the streets of Edwardian London — and this indeed proved to be the case. I'm not sure if it's a book to pick up for the first time in adulthood, but if it was a childhood favourite, it's worth revisiting.
Other than reading sentimental childhood favourite books, I've spent a lot of time this weekend on a marathon catching up to all the episodes of the Rebecca Fraimow/Emily Tesh Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones podcast. (I'm only just at the start of season 2 — I was very much behind — and had hoped to make it to the 3-hour-long Fire and Hemlock episode, but that's not likely at this point since it's 3.30pm on Sunday afternoon.) I'm enjoying it immensely — the discussion hits the sweet spot of enthusiastic affection and depth of analysis in a way that I feel is rare in popular literary criticism at the moment, and it manages to make every episode engaging, even if you haven't read the source material (as I hadn't for most of the 1970s books — although now I want to). The two hosts are clearly having a great time, and the Hugo award for the podcast is very well deserved.
The podcast was the perfect accompaniment to the truly ridiculous amount of cooking I've been doing this weekend. This morning I went out into the garden and agressively pruned the tomato plants, including removing large numbers of green tomatoes (since I don't think there's much chance anything will ripen at this point). These I have put into preserving jars as three batches of fermented tomatoes — one type uses ripe red tomatoes, and the other ferments them while they're still green (for this I had so many tomatoes that I had to spread them across two massive 1L jars). I'm also slow-cooking a stew (my whole house smells of garlic and red wine), I made pickled cucumbers with chilli, and am going to infuse a bottle of bourbon with fresh peach (thanks for the tip,
lyr). I'll update the post with a photoset once all the ferments are sorted out in their jars; the whole process has been incredibly satisfying. I may have had zero luck with growing anything other than tomatoes this year — but oh, what tomatoes they have been!Update: gardening/preserving photoset here!
pauraque (pauraque) wrote2025-10-05 10:30 am
pauraque) wrote2025-10-05 10:30 amEntry tags:
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002)
So, I don't know if Attack of the Clones is necessarily "better" than The Phantom Menace, but I had a more enjoyable experience watching it. I was feeling pretty cheerful through most of the runtime, while I think poor sdk was suffering much more than I was. I definitely had watched the last half of this movie on TV at some point in the mid-2000s. Nothing from the first half was familiar to me at all.
( cut for length, and still negativity though a little less than the last one )
Anyway, here's a song about Anakin and sand.
Embedded video: Fan edit autotunes scenes from the prequels and OT to craft a musical narrative centering on Anakin's enduring hatred of sand.
One more. We can do it! I believe in us!
sdk was suffering much more than I was. I definitely had watched the last half of this movie on TV at some point in the mid-2000s. Nothing from the first half was familiar to me at all.( cut for length, and still negativity though a little less than the last one )
Anyway, here's a song about Anakin and sand.
Embedded video: Fan edit autotunes scenes from the prequels and OT to craft a musical narrative centering on Anakin's enduring hatred of sand.
One more. We can do it! I believe in us!
Entry tags:
- fandom: due south,
- length: 60+ minutes,
- length: 60.000 - 80.000 words,
- non-fic recs: podfic,
- theme: action/adventure,
- theme: au,
- theme: au: complete au,
- theme: au: complete au: robots-ai,
- theme: au: complete au: science fiction,
- theme: fandom classics,
- theme: friends to lovers,
- theme: uncommon settings,
- theme: worldbuilding
due South: Real Life series by MSSalieri (Real Boys & Real Worlds)
Fandom: due South
Characters/Pairings: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski, Ray Vecchio, Diefenbaker, Frannie Vecchio, Margaret Thatcher, Armando Langoustini, Victoria Metcalf
Rating: Teen
Length: 60,820 (whole series) Real Boys is 22,820, Real Worlds is 38,000
Content Notes: Author "chose not to warn", but I don't think any AO3 warnings apply.
Creator Links: MSSalieri (aka Troyswann, Salieri): MSSalieri on AO3 and Salieri's old site on Wayback
Themes: Uncommon settings, Friends to lovers, Action/adventure, AU: Science Fiction, AU: robots & AI, Fandom Classics, Worldbuilding
Summaries: for Real Boys:
Ray looked out from between his fingers. The creature was there, on the other side of Mr. Thug, and it had lots of silvery fur and teeth that would be gleaming really nicely if the 'liner hadn't gone and taken most of the light with it. Between Mr. Thug and Ray, there was a pair of tall boots. Tilting his head back, Ray looked up, up past the red jacket all the way to the head, which was wearing a wide-brimmed hat. On the face under the hat there was a small smile.
"What the," Ray said. "Who the."
for Real Worlds:
"His existence is a violation of Armistice Statute—"
"God laws."
"Yes."
It took only one long stride for Ray to get into Thatcher's space and to her credit she didn’t back down. "You're gonna quote God laws at me?" He jabbed her with a stiff finger. "Who's playin God here, huh? You wave the fucking God laws at me while you got Fraser strapped to a table somewhere so you can put his fucking brains in a blender and take what he is? Look in a fucking mirror, lady."
"For some reason I can't fathom, Mr. Kowalski, I like you, so I'm going to give you a piece of advice." Her chin came up. "You might watch your words. Unless you want to join Fraser on charges of sedition."
"What?" Vecchio was incredulous. "You're yankin me, right? Fraser’s a kitchen appliance, but he's man enough to be brought up on charges? How the Jee does that compute?"
A sequel to Real Boys:
Three years raising sheep on Clementine, and it all comes crashing down in a skip storm, some consequential psychosis, a kidnapping and a global catastrophe. He may be the universe's punching bag, but Ray will fight for freak love. He's getting Fraser back, God Laws be damned.
Reccer's Notes: There are very few AUs that put the due South characters into spaaace! This is a fusion with the Bladerunner universe where Fraser's an android who arrives to assist Ray Kowalski (who's trying to survive on a settler planet). Salieri's a marvelous writer who takes aspects of the Bladerunner universe and expands on them with extraordinary worldbuilding to tell a complex and riveting tale. There's a gradually developing relationship between Ray and Fraser, nefarious villains, and anti-android laws that wrench the boys apart so that both Rays have to fight to get Fraser back. A triumph, and a due South classic. Here's a quote from a comment by Moth: "The other day I was talking to a friend about Philip K. Dick adaptations and I said that it was funny how one of the best adaptations out there was a due South fanfic. So I went and searched for it to see if it lived up to my memories and it actually exceeded them. This is the best type of AU, one that transplants the canon characters, storylines, and themes to a new universe, while also commenting on the both the canon as well as the nature of fiction." It's also a bloody good read!
Fanwork Links: Real Life series on AO3
Podfics of both stories: Real Boys read by Zabira & Real Worlds read by Luzula
Fanart for the series is here (scroll to the end)
Characters/Pairings: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski, Ray Vecchio, Diefenbaker, Frannie Vecchio, Margaret Thatcher, Armando Langoustini, Victoria Metcalf
Rating: Teen
Length: 60,820 (whole series) Real Boys is 22,820, Real Worlds is 38,000
Content Notes: Author "chose not to warn", but I don't think any AO3 warnings apply.
Creator Links: MSSalieri (aka Troyswann, Salieri): MSSalieri on AO3 and Salieri's old site on Wayback
Themes: Uncommon settings, Friends to lovers, Action/adventure, AU: Science Fiction, AU: robots & AI, Fandom Classics, Worldbuilding
Summaries: for Real Boys:
Ray looked out from between his fingers. The creature was there, on the other side of Mr. Thug, and it had lots of silvery fur and teeth that would be gleaming really nicely if the 'liner hadn't gone and taken most of the light with it. Between Mr. Thug and Ray, there was a pair of tall boots. Tilting his head back, Ray looked up, up past the red jacket all the way to the head, which was wearing a wide-brimmed hat. On the face under the hat there was a small smile.
"What the," Ray said. "Who the."
for Real Worlds:
"His existence is a violation of Armistice Statute—"
"God laws."
"Yes."
It took only one long stride for Ray to get into Thatcher's space and to her credit she didn’t back down. "You're gonna quote God laws at me?" He jabbed her with a stiff finger. "Who's playin God here, huh? You wave the fucking God laws at me while you got Fraser strapped to a table somewhere so you can put his fucking brains in a blender and take what he is? Look in a fucking mirror, lady."
"For some reason I can't fathom, Mr. Kowalski, I like you, so I'm going to give you a piece of advice." Her chin came up. "You might watch your words. Unless you want to join Fraser on charges of sedition."
"What?" Vecchio was incredulous. "You're yankin me, right? Fraser’s a kitchen appliance, but he's man enough to be brought up on charges? How the Jee does that compute?"
A sequel to Real Boys:
Three years raising sheep on Clementine, and it all comes crashing down in a skip storm, some consequential psychosis, a kidnapping and a global catastrophe. He may be the universe's punching bag, but Ray will fight for freak love. He's getting Fraser back, God Laws be damned.
Reccer's Notes: There are very few AUs that put the due South characters into spaaace! This is a fusion with the Bladerunner universe where Fraser's an android who arrives to assist Ray Kowalski (who's trying to survive on a settler planet). Salieri's a marvelous writer who takes aspects of the Bladerunner universe and expands on them with extraordinary worldbuilding to tell a complex and riveting tale. There's a gradually developing relationship between Ray and Fraser, nefarious villains, and anti-android laws that wrench the boys apart so that both Rays have to fight to get Fraser back. A triumph, and a due South classic. Here's a quote from a comment by Moth: "The other day I was talking to a friend about Philip K. Dick adaptations and I said that it was funny how one of the best adaptations out there was a due South fanfic. So I went and searched for it to see if it lived up to my memories and it actually exceeded them. This is the best type of AU, one that transplants the canon characters, storylines, and themes to a new universe, while also commenting on the both the canon as well as the nature of fiction." It's also a bloody good read!
Fanwork Links: Real Life series on AO3
Podfics of both stories: Real Boys read by Zabira & Real Worlds read by Luzula
Fanart for the series is here (scroll to the end)
yhlee (yhlee) wrote2025-10-05 08:24 am
yhlee) wrote2025-10-05 08:24 amEntry tags:
latest spinning
Two-ply ramie handspun. I still have to BOIL it with soda ash to set the twist, but this will be going to
ilyena_sylph. ♥
james_davis_nicoll (james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-10-05 08:59 am
james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-10-05 08:59 amEntry tags:
Destinies, February-March 1980 (Destinies, # 6) edited by Jim Baen
Pacifist Dorsai, space forts, duelling reviews, a rant about that mean Mr. Einstein and more in this issue of Destinies.
Destinies, February-March 1980 (Destinies, # 6) edited by Jim Baen
Liv (liv) wrote2025-10-05 11:50 am
liv) wrote2025-10-05 11:50 am
Entry tags:
Yom Kippur
Content note: mentions antisemitic murders and police violence. I personally am completely safe, I'm only talking about dealing with news.
It's around midday Yom Kippur. I'm leading the morning service with a tiny community in the southwest corner of England. There's a slight hiatus as this congregation only have two Torah scrolls, so we have to roll through from the first reading in Exodus to the second reading in Leviticus, saving the second scroll for the afternoon reading from Deuteronomy. (In this community, like most of the Progressive world, our second reading is Leviticus 19, not the verses that are sometimes used as clobber texts to support homophobia.) While there's milling about, the volunteers running the tech for Zoom approach me at the bimah and let me know that there has been an attack in a synagogue in Manchester.
( reactions ) Also, I am deeply grateful for the kind people who checked in with me personally when they heard the news, and for all the leaders, Muslim, Christian and civic, who sent messages of support to the Jewish community and continue to be in solidarity with us.
It's around midday Yom Kippur. I'm leading the morning service with a tiny community in the southwest corner of England. There's a slight hiatus as this congregation only have two Torah scrolls, so we have to roll through from the first reading in Exodus to the second reading in Leviticus, saving the second scroll for the afternoon reading from Deuteronomy. (In this community, like most of the Progressive world, our second reading is Leviticus 19, not the verses that are sometimes used as clobber texts to support homophobia.) While there's milling about, the volunteers running the tech for Zoom approach me at the bimah and let me know that there has been an attack in a synagogue in Manchester.
( reactions ) Also, I am deeply grateful for the kind people who checked in with me personally when they heard the news, and for all the leaders, Muslim, Christian and civic, who sent messages of support to the Jewish community and continue to be in solidarity with us.
mific (mific) wrote in fanart_recs2025-10-06 01:10 am
mific) wrote in fanart_recs2025-10-06 01:10 amEntry tags:
Roads go ever on by eethok (SFW)
Fandom: Tolkien: Lord of the Rings
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Aragorn, Boromir, Legolas, Gandalf, Gimli, Merry, Pippin, Sam, Frodo
Content Notes/Warnings: none
Medium: digital art
Artist on DW/LJ: n/a
Artist Website/Gallery: eethok on tumblr
Why this piece is awesome: Eethok specializes in medieval manuscript-style art, which is perfect to depict the Fellowship setting off on their quest. The details are great and there's a lot packed in - including unlikely-looking wargs, Bill the pony, the gates to Moria (and the lake monster), Smaug in the sky, and Sauron's eye. The border is fantastic, as well. Lovely!
Link: Roads go ever on
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Aragorn, Boromir, Legolas, Gandalf, Gimli, Merry, Pippin, Sam, Frodo
Content Notes/Warnings: none
Medium: digital art
Artist on DW/LJ: n/a
Artist Website/Gallery: eethok on tumblr
Why this piece is awesome: Eethok specializes in medieval manuscript-style art, which is perfect to depict the Fellowship setting off on their quest. The details are great and there's a lot packed in - including unlikely-looking wargs, Bill the pony, the gates to Moria (and the lake monster), Smaug in the sky, and Sauron's eye. The border is fantastic, as well. Lovely!
Link: Roads go ever on