In the early days of the bantering and brainstorming that would become Highlander: the Agent, Tornis had given in to the pull of the muses and started writing scenes from a casefic. As much fun as it was to have near-daily additions to the story to look forward to, I started to feel guilty about not contributing anything of my own. In order to ease myself into the universe, I decided to write a story capitalizing on one of the recurring jokes we'd developed.

( The cat )

As all Highlander backstories need the Reveal Scene, that's also what I wanted to do: The one where we get to see how the family dealt with the news and what put the first pieces into place that would lead to the Matthew that we met in "Manhunt."

( From here to 'Manhunt' )

And thus was born:

Title: Reconcilable Differences
Word Count: 8750
Characters: Matthew, Original Characters, Corwin the Cat
Rating: T (I think there's a swear)
Summary: The year is 1989, and Matthew has been happily married for almost two decades. Recognizing that his lack-of-aging is catching up to this life, he realizes it's time to have the talk with his family.

This also marks the first of the extras that I wrote, and the first one posted on our new schedule of releasing extras on Wednesdays.

As is my usual practice, my latest book as Lauren is available for download for my DW circle for the next week or so!



Download from Bookfunnel.

The download will be up until the book goes live on Amazon on May 2.

(Technically this is Shifter Agents #6, but it's a standalone that shouldn't require any context to read.)

So the last few days have been eventful so it’s time, again, for a general post.

So on Sunday I started watching The Residence. I saw a trailer for it on twitter about a month or so ago and I was instantly intrigued. It’s a murder mystery and someone has gotten killed at a large house while a party is going on downstairs. Which yeah, sounds like dozens of other murder mysteries, except this is no ordinary large house: it’s the white house.

I watched the first two episodes and, so far, it’s really great so far! I love the detective as she’s so quirky and has absolutely no respect for any of the guys trying to tell her what to do (or what not to do). The cast is also wild as there’s been a lot of people I’ve recognised (The FBI agent from Ant Man and Wandavision, Tilly from Star Trek Discovery, Jane Curtain from 3rd Rock from the sun, one of the guys from OG Charmed, hughJackman and Kylie Minogue! Oh and the guy that plays Moff Gideon in The Mandalorian is in it too.) I really love it and wanna watch more cause I wanna know what happened!

The rest of Sunday was kinda low energy but I did end up starting a game pass game, Planet Of Lana. It came to gamepass last year and I wanted to play it cause it looks so pretty but alas I got sidetracked. It really is so pretty though and there’s a cute lil guy called Mui who is like a lil black cat thing. It’s pretty good so far, though some parts are tricky.

I found out on insta that there’s gonna be an indie horror short film thing at a cinema in Birmingham (here’s the list) and I’m kinda tempted to check it out even though I dunno exactly where the cinema is and it’s on a library day. We’ll see if I do it (they’re also doing full showings of Twin Peaks which is kinda cool but they’re on Sundays)

There wasn’t gonna be any plans Monday, but then when I was looking at the tv guide I saw there was a film I’d wanted to see for awhile on. It was The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes and I’d heard of it cause there’s a section at Loch Ness (which resulted in a prop being lost to the loch only to be found again a few years back). And honestly? It was a wild ride. It had Christopher Lee as Mycroft an opening story mostly unconnected to the rest (with Sherlock implying to someone that he was gay and Watson was his lover), a finale at Loch Ness and a closing scene that was so sad. (It’s on Sky Arts again Saturday afternoon.j I’m so glad I spottted the listing, though also so sad when I looked up later that there was intended to be more scenes to it but they got cut.

Since money, finally, turned up I decided to go to sainsburys this morning to look for eggs. As I posted on insta I did find some, in sainsburys and Aldi, but there really weren’t many options and it was mainly more expensive eggs left. M and S’s food also didn’t have anything which was a shame as I wanted to try some of their hot cross buns. I did get a lil Lego Yoshi and the new radio times from sainsburys though.

(Also Pets at home had the cutest lil Guinea pigs they were so adorable😭)

I did manage to get a Lindt eggfor mum though as thanks for all the issues, though the box could easily have been half the size it was. We also had dominos, which was good though I’m sure the price has gone up since we last had some.

Also today Elder Scrolls Oblivion has been remastered and was out today! It’s on game pass too so I might try it sometime but it’s 120GB thst means I have to figure out a way to make space (damn xbox and memory card things being so small)

Also today the local cinema put up the Episode III showing times and it looks like it’s only from Friday-Sunday which is a bit annoying. It’s also annoying it’s only one showing, 3:45 which means I can get there on bus, but have to walk back if I go. I’ll see what the weather is like, but I know Saturday is out cause of Doctor Who.

Anyway! I think that’s everything but I’m probably missing something super obvious.

DC, Open (2844 words) by likeadeuce
Chapters: 1/?
Fandom: Challengers (Movie 2024)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Art Donaldson/Patrick Zweig, Art Donaldson/Original Female Character(s), Patrick Zweig/Original Male Character(s)
Additional Tags: Tennis, Missing Years, watches and other status symbols, Patrick Zweig's POV, tashi haunting the narrative
Summary:

Patrick is trying to get his tennis career together when he runs into Art again at a tournament in Washington, DC.

Are they so back, or is it so over?

A lot of assorted things have happened the past few months, but the one I came here to post about is my progress with Japanese.

It's going very well! I've learned and can understand so, so much more than before. Soon, I'll have finished my first game you need basic reading ability to fully enjoy... while properly, actually reading it! (The game being わんこと魔法のぼうし、which I have enjoyed in English, and beat in Japanese for speedrunning, but hadn't been able to actually comprehend until more recently). I'm having such a good time with this.

( Mahou no Boushi stuff )

Anyway playing games is a fun and cool way of learning and keeping myself at maximum motivation (alongside other ways of studying ofc). So I've set out a plan for after I finish Mahou no Boushi:
- I want to play THE DOG ISLAND -ひとつの花の物語-. it's similar as a game, but it's longer and has a bit more going on plot-wise, so I think it'll be good for solidifying things.
- By around 2 months from now, I want to have started playing Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney. I've already picked up on a lot of courtroom words from prior prods at it, but I think I can have an honest shot at it if I keep at this sort of pace.

There are lots of Ace Attorney games, and I already have the GBA versions of the original trilogy (which I originally bought because I saw them for cheap and liked Ace Attorney and thought they would be awesome to have, but had no idea if I would actually ever be able to understand at the time). I certainly won't be short of material ^^ And, y'know. It's DGS' fault I'm doing this anyway. If I play a lot of lawyer games then the Meiji era lawyer game that's the end goal will become an easier nut to crack.

It's almost farmer's market season in my part of the world! Here are some of the fruits and veggies that I'm looking forward to buying this summer.

1. Berries! Raspberries are probably my very favorite, but I also love blueberries, blackberries, strawberries… I put them in oatmeal and sometimes in pies or muffins.

2. Peaches! They’re also great in cereal and pies, sometimes in combination with any of the berries.

3. Asparagus! I occasionally roast it to toss with pasta but use it more often in a stir fry.

4. Red and green peppers! These are also fine stir-fry or curry ingredients, though I also like to mix them into other rice dishes: with coconut and chili and lime, or with cheese and salsa and chicken.

5. Diva cucumbers! Those are the tiny seedless ones. Last summer, I sliced one up to include in my lunch at least once a week; alternatively, they’re another great addition to cold rice dishes (I add shredded carrots, soy sauce, sesame seeds, and some kind of protein).

I will be going back to answer recent comments, but first, one more stray B5 thought with spoilers through 5x18.

( Tying up a loose end )

Previous poll review
In the vegetables poll, 90.4% of respondents clicked fresh vegetables (bought), 46.2% clicked frozen vegetables, and 44.2% clicked fresh vegetables (homegrown). I was surprised; I thought more people would go frozen for the convenience. (I wonder what that says, if anything, about Dreamwidth demographics.)

In ticky-boxes, hugs came first with 78.8%, followed by a tie between "hanging in there until things settle down and I can sort my life out" and "sunbeams playing in a tree, daring each other to peek around the shadowed side" with 63.5% each. Thank you for your votes!

Reading
Still going on The Horse and His Boy (I am slow and distractable) and the Guardian novel read-along (it's on a schedule). Nothing in audio.

Kdramas
We started Tale of the Nine Tailed, a sweeping epic about a powerful immortal, the reincarnated love of his life, and his bratty younger brother. (Nothing at all like Guardian the novel, why do you ask?) I'm hoping it has enough plot and worldbuilding to hold Andrew's interest; he gets bored during extended romance scenes.

More of Sell Your Haunted House with Pru. And in solo-watching, I started Heesu in Class 2; it's pretty adorable, but also Heesu is the living embodiment of Idiots In Love, and sometimes I have to watch through my fingers.

Other TV
This week's Doctor Who

was very silly and meta, set against a background of ominous racism. Hm. But I did enjoy the jokes, and Belinda is great.

Episode 1 of Sherlock & Daughter. We were just going to try out the first ten minutes to get a sense of it, but we ended up watching the whole episode. I can forgive Holmes for being a grumpy old man when he has a reason for it.

Our Deadloch rewatch-with-a-friend continues, plus Jentry Chau vs the Underworld, about which I still have no opinion.

My sister and I watched Into the Night (1985 film; Michelle Pfeiffer, Jeff Goldblum, and a vast number of film directors as extras, the only one of whom I knew on sight was Jim Henson). The caper was silly, and the romance plotline was very thin, but Goldblum and Pfeiffer are so watchable that it hung together despite the weird pacing when it lingered on random extras we were supposed to recognise. Lovely to see David Bowie in a small (albeit violently psychotic) role.

Guardian/Fandom
I archived my Murderbot flashficlet, and wow, Murderbot fans are generous with their kudosing. *hearts so much* (In my experience, some fandoms are just more kudosy than others.)

Audio entertainment
I listened my way through all of The Setup, a romance audiodrama about Juan, an anxious art museum curator in NYC, and Fernando, the con artist who's trying to steal a painting. It's great! I'm really into it. And then I got to the end of the available episodes and realised it's not finished yet, ahhhhh! I need to check these things before I start!

(Is it just me or are depictions of anxiety becoming more common in romances? I feel like there's some wish fulfilment going on: people longing to meet The One who is hot, super into them, and will also be incredibly kind and patient and give them effective tips for handling their panic attacks. Not that romances aren't all about wish fulfilment, so why not? Add dimensions to your dream partner!)

Writing/making things
My little 4k exchange fic is becoming somewhat tortured by all the writing advice I'm trying to enact on it. Hopefully I'm not engineering the spark out of the thing. Also, hopefully I emerge from this process wiser and more capable. (It could happen!) Note to self: this story still doesn't have an ending, oops.

Other than that, I'm spending a lot of my life rolling around in meta discussions, yay!

Life/health/mental state things
Oh, look, let's not even talk about it. /o\

Note to self: I had a flu jab on Saturday.

Online life
I'm switching ISPs on Friday. Wish me luck! If I disappear off the face of the internet, that will be why.

Food
Today marks my first attempt at baked potatoes in the slow cooker. *fingers crossed* I forgot to prickle them with a fork before I wrapped them in foil, so who knows.

Good things
Fandom. Writing. Lunchtime dumplings on the back deck. Cephalopod plushies. Queer audiodramas. Friends coming over to watch stuff. Guardian. Home-made salsa. Trivia quizzes. Music and kindness and laughter and love.

I find myself a bit rusty when it comes to writing fic (well, at least I haven't really managed anything for the past few months) so I decided to try to do bits and pieces of the (very threadbare) plot of the freemium game "Starbrew Cafe" over the next 10 days.

Hopefully my muse will come out of hiding so I can finish an actual fic request.

Originally a prompt fill from here. The original prompt was 'Pink.'


Title: Backup Plans
Fandom: Mega Man Battle Network
Characters: Yuichiro Hikari, Haruka Hikari, Lan Hikari, Megaman.exe
Length: 3k+
Content notes: Character Death (offscreen)
Author notes: This fic assumes you know what a NetNavi is. For the purposes of this fic, all you really need to know is that it's a little digital guy who lives in your phone that you can customize and befriend, and that basically everyone has one.

Summary: Pre-series. Yuichiro Hikari becomes a father to twins. Yuichiro Hikari becomes a father thrice over.

( Read more... )

I made this little batch of icons for the "pink" prompt at fan_flashworks and tbh I'm still pretty happy with them all so now that the challenge is closed I can slap these pretty babies over here as well for safekeeping :)

Title: Pink sweater
Fandom: Bad Sisters
Rating: T (for one swear word, I guess lol)
Notes: n/a
Summary: Twelve icons of Becka Garvey in her pink sweater

( Read more... )