talkingtothesky

lbdmod posting in

Nominations for Little Black Dress 2025 are now officially open! Please read the guidelines below, even if you regularly participate in exchanges.

1. All characters must be disambiguated, even if they wouldn't usually need to be. Disambiguation means putting the fandom name in parentheses next to the character e.g. Marta Cabrera (Knives Out). It's very possible several characters will be nominated in several different canon iterations, so please disambiguate as specifically as possible or characters will go wandering. If you nominate Leia Organa in Star Wars—All Media Types, disambiguate with (SW—AMT) and not just (Star Wars).

2. For big sprawling canons, make sure you only nominate All Media Types if you are truly requesting that character within any media type. Note that you cannot DNW a subset of canon. For instance, if you would like Leia paired with any character in any Star Wars media except for the video games, you cannot request her in Star Wars—All Media Types and DNW video game pairings. You can, however, request her in the Original Trilogy and then opt-in for crossovers in any Star Wars media except for video games. If in doubt, nominate your character in a smaller piece of your canon and opt-in to the larger one.

3. As a general note, please bear in mind that the fandom you nominate a character under will determine the available set of characters to ship them with, so consider this carefully.

4. Participants may nominate 1-10 characters in 1-10 fandoms.

( More specific fandom and character guidelines )

Since multiple versions of canons are in the tagset, you may run into a case where synning changes the fandom you nominate without allowing you to edit or otherwise locks up your nominations page! If this happens please let me know and I will be able to help you get your nominations submitted with the intended fandom tag.

The 2025 Tagset can be found here. Nominations will remain open for one week, until 11:59PM EDT June 27 2025 (click here for a countdown). They will then close for cleanup and re-open until the end of signups.

If you notice something that needs fixed in the tagset, including incorrect tags or wandering tags, please let me know here or on any query posts! Nomination queries will be posted here at the comm, so please check back if your nominations haven't been accepted.

Happy nomming!

jayregee posting in

icons

I am getting rid of these icons. They need a good home. Want any of them? Some were made when I was just beginning to make icons so their appearance may not be up to code.

( More Icons of DIfferent Fandoms... )

Current Mood: creative

rocky41_7 posting in

fffriday

On Saturday afternoon, on the bus ride home, I finished The Traitor Baru Cormorant, because I couldn't wait until I got home to reach the end, despite a long history of reading-induced car sickness. It was totally worth it.

The Traitor Baru Cormorant is all fantasy politics. There's no magic or fairies or prophecies, just Seth Dickinson's invented world and the titanic machinations of Empire. And it is electric. Tentatively, I'd make a comparison to The Goblin Emperor, except that where TGE is about how Maia, completely unprepared for his role, is thrust into a viper's nest of politics, Baru Cormorant is about how Baru has painstakingly taught herself the ways of the empire and enters into the game fully prepared to rewrite the rules to her liking.

Dickinson creates a wonderfully believable world. The Empire of Masks—popularly known as the Masquerade—is sickeningly plausible, with their soft conquests of money and ideas backed by a highly-trained and well-equipped military. The Masquerade is not content to conquer land—it must conquer minds, people. It is relentless in its push to force its colonies and territories to adopt its ways of thinking, to the point of dictating who may and may not marry based on their bloodlines. With this comes a heaping dose of homophobia, frequently enforced on cultures who had formerly been relaxed or even accepting of queer identities and relationships. This presents a specific problem for Baru, who is the daughter of a mother and two fathers, and who is herself a deeply closeted lesbian.

The story makes use of incredibly mundane tools in its schemes, something that also rings realistic. It's not all backstabbing, murder, and blackmail—at one point, a serious political threat is nullified through currency inflation. Baru, who becomes an imperial accountant, is in a prime position to use these seemingly dull tools to marvelous effect. Many schemes are strangled in the cradle, such that only the plotter and the defeater are even aware that they existed. But the game goes on.

( Read more... )

rocky41_7 posting in

gaming

I've fallen into the trap of being so busy playing Baldur's Gate 3 that I haven't had the time to say anything about Baldur's Gate 3 (a problem I've experienced before - which is why I've never yet reviewed My Life as a Teenage Exocolonist). There's also the fact that anyone on the farthest verge of the gaming sphere is aware of this game and has probably already read a least one review of it. Still, I'll throw my thoughts out, for whatever they're worth.

2025 has been a strange gaming year for me. Far and away my most anticipated game was Dragon Age: The Veilguard, a game I've waited almost a decade for with baited breath. Baldur's Gate 3 was barely even on my radar—I played a few meager hours of one of Larian's earlier RPGs, Divinity Original Sin 2, which cemented my hatred of turn-based combat and dislike of isometric games. (Which is not a knock on DOS2—it was a very well-done game! Just not for me.) I was not willing to shell out BG3's price for the significant chance that its gameplay would be too frustrating for me to get into the story. Fortunately, my sister handled that issue by gifting it to me for Christmas—a free experiment.

In January, as usual, I plunged into my holiday cache of new games, starting with DATV—for more on my disappointment with that, see this review. When I'd quickly burned out on DATV, I turned to BG3, the unknown factor. Admittedly, this game is not optimized for console. Even after its eighth patch, it frequently crashes, particularly in battles with a high number of participants. Its menus and maps are difficult to read at a distance, such as from couch to TV. Its controls can be obtuse as the game tries to cram the huge number of functions onto a controller's limited button scheme.

However, in spite of these flaws, I've been reflecting the last few weeks on how BG3 has nevertheless been so much more fun than DATV, the game I was predisposed to like. What was it, I wondered, that made BG3 more fun? (And sorry--there will be more DA comparisons below.)

( Read more... )

cornerofmadness posting in

unconventionalcourtship

Title: Dandelions

author:

cornerofmadness

Fandom: Hazbin Hotel

Pairing/Characters: Angel Dust/Husk

Rating: explicit

Length: 24,404

Summary: Even though Angel is still under Valentino’s thumb, he has secretly signed on as Charlie Morningstar’s man, a protector, a faithful friend, whatever she needs and what she needs now is his help to find out who is stalking her (even if she thinks she can handle it herself)
Husker is more concerned with his casinos and clubs and his wild parties than he is with whatever reason Valentino wants him to take his best porn star to bed. He assumes Valentino is trying to get him in his debt but Husker prefers his lovers to have some brains, something - if the rumors are true – Angel Dust is lacking. But when he is being framed for trying to kill the Princess of Hell, Husker throws his lot in with Angel and the rest of Charlie’s people to clear his name.

Notes: Sorry, I wrote the post date wrong
Only the last chapter contains sexual content, though sexual innuendo and non-graphic scenes are laced throughout the story

The blurb I used:( under here )

Link: here on AO3.

Current Mood: rushed
Current Music: Death in Paradise

in_sufficientdata posting in

starlightchallenge

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rachelmanija

While on a commercial expedition, an unexpected accident causes Mai, an engineer, and Juna, an HR person, to crash-land on a pitch-black planet called Shroud. They can't get out of their escape pod because the air is corrosive and unbreathable, and they can't call for help. Their only hope is to use the pod's walker system to trek all the way across the planet... which turns out to be absolutely teeming with extremely weird life, none of which can see, all of which communicates via electromagnetic signals, most of which constructs exoskeletons for itself with organic materials, and some of which is extremely large.

As readers, we learn very early on that at least some of the life on Shroud is intelligent. But Juna and Mai don't know that, the intelligent Shroud beings don't know that humans are intelligent, and human and Shroud life is so different that it makes perfect sense that they can't tell. As Juna and Mai make their probably-doomed expedition across Shroud, they're accompanied by curious Shroud beings, frequently attacked by other Shroud creatures, face some of the most daunting terrain imaginable, and slowly begin to learn the truth about Shroud. But even if they succeed in rescuing themselves, the predatory capitalist company that sent them on their expedition on the first place is determined to strip Shroud for materials, and doesn't care if its indigenous life is intelligent or not.

This is possibly the best first contact novel I've ever read. It's the flip side of Alien Clay, which was 70% depressing capitalist dystopia and 30% cool aliens. Shroud is 10% depressing capitalist dystopia and 90% cool aliens - or rather, 90% cool aliens and humans interacting with cool aliens. It's a marvelous alien travelogue, it has so many jaw-dropping moments, and it's very thematically unified and neatly plotted. The climax is absolutely killer.

The characterization is sketchy but sufficient. The ending is a little abrupt, but you can easily extrapolate what happens from there, and it's VERY satisfying. As far as I know this is a standalone, but I would certainly enjoy a sequel if Tchaikovsky decided to write one.

My absolute favorite moment, which was something you can only do in science fiction, is a great big spoiler. ( Read more... )

sinesofinsanity posting in

fancake

Fandom: DC, technically the Justice League (2017) movie, but can reasonably fit with most DC timelines
Pairings/Characters: Martha Kent, Atlanna
Rating: T
Length: 2,909 words
Creator Links: susiecarter
Theme: Female Relationships, Female Friendship, Gen, Minor Characters, Superpowers

Summary: There's a very unusual woman on the train, when Martha boards just outside Metropolis.

Reccer's Notes: I love depictions of Martha Kent where she is no-nonsense and kind, but ultimately human. She is out of her depth in the superhero shenanigans but perfectly suited to handle any and all human things before and after. I love how she immediately clocks Atlanna as "strange and possibly dangerous" and so decides to strike up a conversation. It's lovely to see these two women bond over their sons even before they really know who each other is. Also Alfred cameos at the end which is always fun.

Fanwork Links: not far from the apples on AO3

smallhobbit

Change phone provider

I had used the same phone provider since I was working in a company which, amongst other things, provided mobile phones, which meant I got staff rate. However, since I left in 2018 the price has been slowly rising, so it's no longer a good deal and my data allowance was very limited.

Which was why I finally made the move to change provider - prompted in part by listing this as something to do this year and therefore committing myself to do it! Having looked at price comparison websites I decided to just go to Tesco, where the staff are helpful, which meant they could do the set up for me. I'd got a PAC code so within just over 24 hours of buying a new SIM (I'm on SIM only having bought a new phone in January) I have my old number (it's the only number I've ever managed to remember!) it was all set up. Hooray!

mekare

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rocky41_7 posting in

fffriday

On Monday's outbound commute I finished the audiobook for Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk. This is a supernatural/fantasy noir romance and it does pack a lot of all three of those things into its brief 4-hour runtime.

This book relies heavily on stock film noir tropes—the veteran down-and-out private (paranormal) investigator (here a lesbian, Helen, our protagonist) who drinks too much and is haunted by past mistakes, a mysterious and sexy female client with a unique case, and "just one last" job before the PI plans to quit and retire with a beloved romantic partner. I didn't find them overused—and seeing them reworked to queer and female characters was fun—but other readers may find them too worn out even here.

Because the book is so short, it moves along at a very rapid pace. The whole thing takes place over the course of two days—the final two days before Helen's soul debt is called due and she finally has to pay the price of her warlock bargain. In this way, any rush felt appropriate, since it fit both the size of the novel and the context of Helen's urgency to get this last job done before she has to pay up.

The characters weren't super developed, but again—4-hour runtime. They're a little stock character-y, but not total cardboard cut-outs. It was disappointing for me to see Helen make the same mistake at the end of the book that she did prior to the start, as if she hadn't really learned anything, but since the novel ends promptly after that, the story never has to reckon much with it.

I was relieved that Edith, Helen's girlfriend, wasn't just the damsel in distress/goal object for Helen, which I was a bit worried about in the beginning. Edith has secrets and goals of her own.

Overall, the book was fine, and it entertained me well enough for a few days. Nothing extraordinary here, but nothing objectionable either. I will say I think keeping it short worked best for this book—I think drawing it out might have only weakened it. A fun little twist on a typical noir novel.

Crossposted to

books and my main

skysedge posting in

fic_promptly

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shmaylor posting in

pod_together

Today's questions should help springboard you into the creation period, allowing you to start proposing ideas and thinking about how you want to shape your project.

What are some ideas you have for how this collaboration could be specifically created for voice?

What are some ideas you have for how to practice antiracism* while making this collaboration? (if you're stuck on this question, you can check out some of the resources linked at our content moderation policy post for a starting place, or ask the Discord community for ideas.)

How do you feel about the idea of bringing additional people on board to create your project? If it’s something you’re interested in, would you want to bring them in at this early creation stage, or just bring them on during the podficcing process to add additional voices? (Please feel free to contact the mods for assistance if you do decide you’d like to add more creators to your project—or feel free to reach out to friends on your own!)

*According to author/professor/activist/historian Ibram X Kendi, all actions are either racist or antiracist, and cannot be neutral. We're drawing from that framework with the question. In this case, practicing antiracism would mean (in the words of participant bluedreaming) "creation with an active consideration and recognition of conscious and subconscious racism in writing and other portrayals, with a concerted effort to learn and do better, and an openness to critique and suggestion."

This is our last icebreaker, we hope that groups have found them informative and helpful! Quick reminder, the first check in is on July 6th but, as always, you're welcome to contact the mods at any time for whatever reason.

starwatcher posting in

ebooks

Hooray! I saw this in time for people to get in on the deal.

"On Friday, June 20, 2025, get a curated offering of free romance books at your preferred ebook retailer, no strings attached. This is just a helpful collection of free-for-a-limited-time romance ebooks!"

https://www.romancebookworms.com/

Feel free to share this wherever.

ysabetwordsmith posting in

creative_cooks

We made this tonight. It turned out quite well. :D

"Chicken Stir-Fry with Mushrooms and Swiss Chard"

Ingredients:

For the stir-fry:
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
half a sweet onion, diced
half a 1.25 pound package of boneless chicken thighs
a handful of baby 'Bright Lights' Swiss chard
6.6 ounce can of mushrooms
a pinch of sea salt

For the sauce:
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Bragg Organic Sprinkle 24 Herbs and Spices
1 teaspoon tapioca starch

( Read more... )

Current Mood: accomplished

china_shop

Title: Whatever It Takes to Bring You Back (5691 words) [Teen and Up]
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Characters: Shen Wei, Zhao Yunlan, Wu Tian'en, Ding Dun
Additional Tags: Whump, Pain, Loss of Agency, Episode Related, episode 17, Zhao Yunlan's first trip to Dixing does not end well, Until it does, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Hurt!Zhao Yunlan, hurt!Shen Wei, Get Together, First Kiss (for one of them)

Summary:

“Shen Wei! You’re here—” Zhao Yunlan was sobbing. Then he screamed again, curling in on himself and clutching his forearm. “Fuck, this hurts! Get it—this—get it out of me! Help, Shen Wei—”

Something was very wrong. Even if he were terribly injured, Zhao Yunlan wouldn’t permit panic into his voice. He would make jokes, not scream for help. How much agony must he be in, to have broken like this?

china_shop

Previous poll review
In the The Tower poll, by far the most popular princess is the cat (63%), so I guess it's a cat tower. Runner up is the dragon princess with 47.8%, and third is the minotaur princess (32.6%), who I imagine is enjoying the view after so much time shut up in a labyrinth.

In ticky-boxes, rescue dragons came second to hugs, 60.9% to 69.6%, and puppies came third with 45.7%. Thank you for your votes!!

Reading
Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smarter About People Who Think Differently by Steve Silberman, narrated by William Hope. This is (understandably) more about parenting than I was expecting, so I don't know that I'm getting a huge amount out of it. But it's well-written and well-read, and I'll keep going a bit further. (It's over 20 hours.)

Maybe a little more of The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander -- I'm not sure if I've got back to this since I last posted. I'm awaiting new intermediate glasses, which I'm hoping will make life easier and mean I can read on my exercise machine again, without having to set the font size to "huge". (Breaking news: ageing is overrated.)

Guardian by priest -- I think we're nearly through the epic (in both senses) mythology dump, and we'll soon be getting back to what I think of as the main plot arc.

Release Your Persona by Yeaze (Korean BL manhwa) (via

reviews_and_ramblings, which I found via

cornerofmadness) -- this sure was an education in how porny BL manhwa are. It's a short-and-sweet celeb/non-celeb romance. Very cute (and did I mention E-rated?).

No Peter Whimsy this week because I disliked the narrator of the audiobook.

Kdramas
Our Unwritten Seoul -- okay, I'm loving this story of adult twins who swap lives; it's interesting and hopeful without being fluffy. Curious to see where it's going, and (of course) impatient for secrets to come out.

Sell Your Haunted House -- rewatch continues. Such a good show.

Other TV
The first episode of Étoile, a ballet drama created by the Sherman-Palladinos (of Gilmore Girls and Marvelous Mrs. Maisel fame). Seems fun so far. We'll get back to it.

Finished the first season of the Argentinian show, El Eternauta, and I totally see why it was recommended to go in unspoiled (I agree!), but just ftr, the season doesn't wrap up. It's one of those gear-shift to-be-continued endings. Still, it was fascinating and I always appreciate a different-from-the-usual-suspects setting. (

laireshi, if you happen to be reading this, this show hits one of your DNWs.)

Turning Point: The Vietnam War continues to be excellent; really impressive range of interview subjects from all sides. Murderbot is still really fun. Finished season 5 of The Expanse. The school episode of Poker Face and the con artist one (John Cho & Melanie Lynskey 4 eva), and episodes 4 & 5 of Andor season 2.

Guardian/Fandom
My fannish activity consists of the readalong, the polls, and writing -- which is all so much fun and plenty to keep me busy.

Audio entertainment
Writing Excuses, a lot of Coherent (local politics argh), and a couple of episodes of Midnight Burger because I was starving for fiction. (Episode 7 was so good I made Andrew listen to it. I'm not sure it worked as well out of context, but mostly I just liked the physics conversation anyway.)

Writing/making things
I'm still writing! This is a pretty great streak for me. How long can it last? Trying to finish a minor character/outsider POV flashfic for tomorrow's

fan_flashworks deadline (prompt: Yield), and I still have the Guardian bingo prompts for June on my mind. One day I'll get back to my WIPs.

Also, there's been author reveals, so I can say that I picked up a pinch hit for

whumpex, which was really fun. I had not previously thought I'd enjoy writing a fic where Zhao Yunlan spends most of it screaming in pain, but... you live, you learn.

Life/health/mental state things
( Idek. )

Good things
Sunshine and biking. The bakery at Greta Point, with its delicious cinnamon rolls and seed-strewn rye sourdough. Achieving getting my car fixed. Writing! Guardian and comments and polls and the readalong and happy brain-sparky times and people. My favourite hand cream courtesy of

mergatrude. Crosswords. Kdramas. My arms are holding up pretty well.

Poll #33270 Impending doom of the natural variety

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 51

View Respondents

What natural disaster threat(s) do you live with?

View Answers

earthquake
12 (23.5%)

fire
15 (29.4%)

volcano
5 (9.8%)

flood
23 (45.1%)

drought/heat
29 (56.9%)

hurricane/cyclone
13 (25.5%)

landslide/avalanche
2 (3.9%)

blizzard
21 (41.2%)

tornado
14 (27.5%)

tsumani
4 (7.8%)

other
2 (3.9%)

ticky-box full of emergency kits/go bags
17 (33.3%)

ticky-box made of Möbius strips and Escher staircases
25 (49.0%)

ticky-box full of unlabelled VHS tapes
17 (33.3%)

ticky-box full of zebras in headphones listening to 80s pop on Stripe-ify
19 (37.3%)

ticky-box full of hugs
36 (70.6%)

nondenomifan posting in

fandom10in30

THEME

For this round, the colors in your icons must be extra vibrant; it should almost (almost) hurt your eyes to look at the most vibrant colors on them (as in the banner above and in the sample icons below). Exposure, Levels, Curves, and Saturation can be good tools for this theme. Remember: white is a color!

Good luck and have fun.

1. Sign ups will be open to the end of this round, which will be July 11, 2025 (extra time for some countries' holidays).
( etc. )

( Inspiration Icons! )

Signups:

1. nondenomifan
2. magicrubbish
3. abyss_valkyrie
4. debris4spike
5. picnicnic
6. littlemissnovella
7. breyzyyin
8.
9.
10.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Someone mowing their lawn

prisca posting in

fic_promptly

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tentaclemod posting in

raremaleslashex

Nominations are now open. Please read this post before you go and nominate!

Eligibility

Eligibility criteria are that relationships need to:

be a / ship involving male characters only
have no more than 200 fics on AO3 - this includes only complete works of at least 1000 words in English (using "otp:true")

A full list of the exchange rules can be found here.

Clarifications

If there's a possibility of confusion regarding a ship of fandom you wish to nominate, please comment on this post to clarify before you nominate.

This will hopefully cut down on queries during the nomination period so that approvals can be made more quickly. However, please bear in mind that checks are time-consuming and nominations are displayed to mods in a random unsortable order so most approvals won't be instantaneous!

Reasons to comment here may include:

difficulty of locating information on a character's canonical gender
your ship seems to be over the number limit even after applying search filters but is actually under it
the fandom you wish to nominate is "All Media Types" or "& Related Fandoms" and this is the most fitting, specific tag
the fandom is canonized weirdly on AO3 and you do not want to nominate that version for reasons
anything else you wish to make me aware of!

Please do not comment if your ship has over 200 fics before filters but drops under 200 with them; we will be checking numbers using the appropriate search filters.

As a minimum, please let us know:

the fandom and ship(s)
an outline of the issue
your view why the fandom or ship(s) should be approved

Feel free to include as much additional info as you feel is necessary! Too little information is worse than too much =)

( Checking your ship's numbers )

The tag set will close for nominations at 20:00 UTC on Sunday June 29. View the countdown here.

Please bear in mind that numbers checks are time-consuming and nominations are displayed to mods in a random unsortable order. Most approvals won't be instantaneous and are unlikely to be in the order submitted!

Please read the instructions before you nominate.

( Guidelines and notes under the cut. )

If you wish to provide any information on the eligibility of your ship (re number of works after search filters, canonical gender, etc.), feel free to do so here!

If any nominations require clarification, I'll ask questions in a separate post.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask them here or email tentaclemod@gmail.com. Anon commenting is on.

Now go forth and nominate!

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sky's journal

nothing happens to me

Reading

Nominations are Open!

Icons That Need Homes

Book review: "The Traitor Baru Cormorant" by Seth Dickinson

Recent Playing: Baldur's Gate 3

Dandelions (Hazbin Hotel Angel Dust/Husk)

Prompt 36

Shroud, by Adrian Tchaikovsky

DCU: not far from the apples by susiecarter

25 Things in 2025 - Thing #11

Art: Grudge Therapy #2

Book review: "Even though I Knew the End" by C.L. Polk.

Friday, June 20 - Theme: Riot

Icebreaker Week: Day 5

Free ebooks Friday, June 20

Recipe: "Chicken Stir-Fry with Mushrooms and Swiss Chard"

Whump fic: Whatever It Takes to Bring You Back (Guardian, SW/ZYL)

Me-and-media update

Round 59: Vibrant Colors

Thursday, June 19 - Free for All

Eligibility & Nominations Post 2025

Eligibility

Clarifications

Please read the instructions before you nominate.

Profile

March 2025

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