Previous poll reviewIn
the hair, there, and everywhair poll, 78% of respondents said they air dry, 35.6% towel dry roughly, 30.5% towel dry carefully / squeezingly, and 22% use a hair dryer or other device. (I towel dry carefully / squeezingly, then air dry. But I have thick, slow-drying hair, and I can’t sleep with it wet, so I use a hair dryer occasionally.)
In ticky-boxes, “a yawning cat broadcasting calm and satisfaction into the world” beat hugs, 71.2% to 67.8%! The power of
toxiplasmosis cats on the internet! Thirty-six point two percent of respondents agreed that other people are, generally speaking, quite mysterious. Thank you for your votes!
ReadingThe Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander (The Chronicles of Prydain) -- Welsh children’s fantasy, and the first book in the trilogy that Disney’s
The Black Cauldron is loosely based on. I’m not far into this yet, I haven’t read it before, and I've misplaced my kindle. But it starts well.
Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers, narrated by Robert Bathurst -- This ripped along very engagingly. I like that Whimsy isn’t falling over bodies left, right and centre à la Jessica Fletcher; he has to actually seek out cases, and I appreciated his sporting enthusiasm at the outset, and also that he feels it when his actions have consequences. Also, I loved the spinster assistant, Katharine Climpson -- I hope for more of her. (And I just spoiled myself for that on wikipedia, oops, but anyway, good to know she’ll be back.) Is it the Bellona Club next, or am I missing one?
Guardian by priest --
The readalong continues, along with its sixty million comments each week. :D
Argh, I got distracted and still haven’t finished or commented on the rest of the 520 Day collection. Note to self!!
KdramasNada.
Other TVDepartment Q -- We finished off the 9-episode season earlier this week. It’s rather messy (not all the mysteries and loose ends get tied up), and there are a few different flavours of police violence (messed-up cop losing control; very controlled cop “extracting” information; but not group or institutionalised/authorised violence that I recall), as well as the bad guys torturing the victim. If the season had been longer, I might have bailed. But it is very compelling, and Morck (Matthew Goode) is extremely watchable.
Doctor Who -- I think I’m just not the target audience for RTD’s style of story-telling. I’m really going to miss Gatwa on my screen, though.
Stick -- the first episode of Owen Wilson’s new Apple+ golf dramedy. It was okay. Good cast, but the problem with a show about golf is the lack of ~team~. I’m reserving judgement.
El Eternauta -- we’ve finished episode 2 now. It’s fascinatingly creepy. Has a pretty bleak view of human nature, but I’m intrigued to see where it goes. (I was advised to start it with as few spoilers as possible, so I know nothing. Please don’t tell me anything!)
Also, more
Murderbot,
Poker Face, and
Turning Point: The Vietnam War.
Guardian/FandomMostly I’ve just been doing the Guardian novel readalong, the Guardian drama polls, and allllll the discussion that goes along with them. ♥ ♥ ♥
Audio entertainmentWriting Excuses, and several episodes of
Coherent, a podcast focusing on our Deputy Prime Minister's move to set up a sort-of equivalent of DOGE and turn us into a libertarian hellhole. Gah! (Locals,
submissions on the Regulatory Standards Bill close on 1pm, Monday 23rd June.)
Writing/making thingsPlugging away. Yesterday I posted a flashfic that I started in March last year. The first draft didn’t work and was wildly misguided (thanks to my beta for helping me realise that!), but I dusted it off and rebuilt it over the weekend, and I like how it turned out. I have a couple of other things in the works, too, and one day I’ll actually finish this ridiculous 13k-so-far gen fic. At least I’ve worked out why it was losing momentum, to wit, the longer a “missing scene” is, the more it needs to have its own build and climax, rather than relying on canon or narrative irony for the payoff. Unfortunately, the upshot of that is that I need an actual plot development.
I spent Monday’s writers’ hour looking for two story titles, and came up with one I really liked that doesn’t fit either fic. So I guess I also need to write a story to fit that title.
Life/health/mental state thingsOptometrist and GP (for a laundry list of minor questions) this week. Both went fine. The weather is bitterly cold. I’ve been a bit headachy, but I’m mostly putting that down to needing new glasses.
GoalsHuh. I wonder if I should make some.
Link dumpOperation Spiderweb (wikipedia link; Ukraine’s strategic drone strike on Russia’s air capability) |
From cat urine to gunpowder: Exploring the peculiar smells of outer space |
Dynasty's Gay Journey - Killer Dads, Shoulderpads, and the Kiss that Rocked Hollywood (Youtube, 33:25, via a comment at
tv_talk). I have too many tabs open to rootle out more right now.
Good thingsWriting. Writers’ hour. Beta. Guaaaardian. Chocolate. Cat. Andrew.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 10
What kind of princess is in the tower?
View Answersgoblin princess
3 (30.0%)
elf princess
3 (30.0%)
vampire princess
1 (10.0%)
mermaid princess
0 (0.0%)
minotaur princess
5 (50.0%)
dragon princess
5 (50.0%)
troll princess
0 (0.0%)
orc princess
1 (10.0%)
cat
5 (50.0%)
other
1 (10.0%)
actually it's another-gendered member of royalty
4 (40.0%)
ticky-box full of intending to bake but not getting around to it
5 (50.0%)
ticky-box full of still resisting multi-focal lenses
6 (60.0%)
ticky-box of a squadron of rescue dragons who can exhale fire or water, as required
5 (50.0%)
ticky-box of clumsy fledgling puppies, tumbling all over each other out of the nest
2 (20.0%)
ticky-box of spoiler fairies leaving them under your pillow
3 (30.0%)
ticky-box full of hugs
4 (40.0%)
Tuesday – The Solstice
Jun. 10th, 2025 12:52 amToday's theme is the solstice. It’ll be the summer solstice in a few days here in the northern hemisphere and the winter in the south so let’s celebrate the solstice. You can go the pagan route if that works for your fandoms. Have your characters frolic in the summer sun. Hot cocoa and snowmen? Sure, that’s good winter fun. Explore the seasons!
Just a few rules:
No more than five prompts in a row.
No more than three prompts in the same fandom.
Use the character's full names and the fandom's full name
No spoilers in prompts for a month after airing, or use the spoiler cut option found here.
If your fill contains spoilers, warn and leave plenty of space, or use the above-mentioned spoiler cut.
If your story has possible triggers, please warn for them in the subject line!
Prompts should be formatted as follows: [Use the character's full names and fandom's full name]
Fandom, Character +/ Character, Prompt
Some examples to get the ball rolling...
+ Prodigal Son, Malcolm Bright + any, it’s the ten anniversary of a killer who only kills on the solstice
+ Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Willow Rosenberg/ Tara McClay + any, harnessing the energy of the solstice
+ Hazbin Hotel Angel Dust/Husk + any, it’s hard to tell if it’s summer in hell
+ The Owl House, Luz Noceda/Amity Blight + any, trying to explain the solstice to Amity
We are now using AO3 to bookmark filled prompts. If you fill a prompt and post it to AO3 please add it to the Bite Sized Bits of Fic from 2025 collection. See further notes on this new option here.
Not feeling any of today’s prompts? You can use LJ’s advanced search options to limit keyword results to only comments in this community.
While the use of LJ's advanced search options is available, bookmarking the links of prompts you like might work better for searching in the future.
If you are viewing this post on our Dreamwidth site, please know that fills posted here will not show up as comments on our LiveJournal site but you are still more than welcome to participate.
If you have a Dreamwidth account and would feel more comfortable participating there, please feel free to do so…and spread the word!
tag= solstice