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Day One in the books!

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Purrcy, Rivers of London, my back

Purrcy was lying on top of the sofas and then Suddenly a Wild Hand Appeared! With Pets! it was pretty choice for everyone involved tbh

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby leans his head into a white person's hand that's reaching out to rub his face and body, as he sits on the back of the sofas. His eyes are closed in bliss, his whiskers and paws are stretched out, his nose looks very pink & cute.

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby leans his head into a white person's hand that's reaching out to rub his face and body, as he sits on the back of the sofas. His eyes are closed in bliss, his whiskers and paws are stretched out, his nose looks very pink & cute.

One of the things I've been doing to deal with stress is occasional binge-reading of book series. Most recently Rivers of London, which I'd never read all of before.

I do like them, and they're cute and all, but I'm forcefully reminded of why I don't read police procedurals any more, or watch TV shows with law enforcement heroes. Because this is really a fantasy of copaganda, as well as a fantasy with copaganda. I mean, the very idea that murders are treated so *seriously*, with huge commitments of personnel & resources ... This has *got* to be a fantasy for the UK, right? It's certainly a fantasy for the US, where almost half of all murders are unsolved.

So I can't really like them unreservedly, I can't *wallow* in them, my disbelief won't suspend that far.

But! Good news today!

I went to the doctor about my sciatica, and he started me on a course of prednisone, and ... it already seems to be working? maybe? Could this be what not being in pain is like?

Honestly it feels very strange. Stay tuned for more exciting updates!

Current Mood: incautious
Current Music: It's eternally hard

And were too afraid to ask - Star Wars drabble, and also Yuri Day Drabbles

And were too afraid to ask (100 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker, Padmé Amidala & Sabé
Characters: Padmé Amidala, Sabé (Star Wars)
Additional Tags: Drabble, Sex Education
Summary:

Padmé skipped health class and did double diplomacy instead.

*

Come as you are (100 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Chalion Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Characters: Original Female Character(s)
Additional Tags: Drabble, Yuri, Theology
Summary:

Who the Mother loves; who the Bastard loves.

*

Belated discovery (100 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Cyteen Series - C. J. Cherryh
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Catlin AC-7892 II/Ariane Emory II
Characters: Ariane Emory II, Catlin AC-7892 I
Additional Tags: Drabble
Summary:

For the prompt, "What took you so long?"

*

Pasta e amore (100 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: due South
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Elaine Besbriss/Francesca Vecchio
Characters: Francesca Vecchio, Elaine Besbriss
Additional Tags: Drabble, Disney References
Summary:

"Aw, c'mon." Frannie holds out a forkful of capellini to Elaine. "We can make it work."

*

Palimpsest of self (100 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Michael Burnham/Mirror Philippa Georgiou
Characters: Michael Burnham, Mirror Philippa Georgiou
Additional Tags: Drabble, Yuri
Summary:

Michael and Philippa compare scars.

*

Tea, tea, and tea (100 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Tales of the City Series - Armistead Maupin
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Anna Madrigal & Mary Ann Singleton
Characters: Mary Ann Singleton, Anna Madrigal (Tales of the City)
Additional Tags: Drabble
Summary:

Mary Ann has tea with the landlady.

*

Her favorite curse (100 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan & Alys Vorpatril
Characters: Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan, Alys Vorpatril
Additional Tags: Drabble, Sex Education
Summary:

Cordelia wants to go shopping for a different body part this time.

*

Lie down with actresses (100 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Hornblower (TV), Slings & Arrows
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kitty Cobham/Ellen Fanshaw
Characters: Ellen Fanshaw, Kitty Cobham
Additional Tags: Drabble
Summary:

Ellen takes a trip.

*

A union in partition (100 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Slings & Arrows
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Anna Conroy/Maria
Characters: Anna Conroy, Maria (Slings & Arrows)
Additional Tags: Drabble, Morning After
Summary:

Anna wakes up.

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Life in the Mid-Century US: a primer for writers of MASH fic

I read a lot of MASH fic recently, and while most of it was very good, there were also a ton of inaccuracies about what mid-century America was like. I'm not an expert, but at the same time, I did listen to my parents and grandparents when they talked about what life was like when they were younger. And also, I know what's changed within my lifetime (born in 1982), and quite a lot of things people today take for granted are actually new within my lifetime, and thus not around prior to the 1980s. Now, this is fanfic, and if you don't care about historical accuracy in your fic, that is a fine and valid choice and I salute you. If, however, you do want to at least try to avoid major gaffes, here are things I've noticed that people get wrong a lot:

( Women's rights: Ms. )

( Travel )

( Money and Credit )( Alcohol )

( Childcare )

( Phone Calls )

( Progressive Ideas )

( The Ad Council )

( Entertainment )

( Police )

These are just a few of the things that have changed in the last fifty years. And, of course, I'm only one person and might have got things wrong. Let me know if you see things I missed

Rebloggable on tumblr

Current Location: Chicago O'Hare airport

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En route...

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health,
purrcy

Purrcy in the morning

During the heat wave this past week there was no Purrcy on the bed, but I woke up to him at my feet again yesterday and this morning. Lookit that face! Lookit how I touch that paw with a single finger!

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby wriggles on the bed to gaze lovingly at the camera human. His pupils are blown wide, his paws are in bunny position on his white fluffy tummy, one back paw is stretch forward toward the camera where a human hand reaches to touch a toe with a single finger.

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby wriggles on the bed to gaze lovingly at the camera human. His pupils are blown wide, his paws are in bunny position on his white fluffy tummy, one back paw is stretch forward toward the camera where a human hand reaches to touch a toe with a single finger.

I haven't been Purrcy-posting regularly for a while, because I've been tired and distracted and didn't have time -- because of the fascism, but also because of sitting outside in the spring and listening to birds. I'm trying to get back into it now, as you can see, but it's hard to keep in focus.

Also, my sciatica has been acting up, which means a lot of time just lying in bed, dozing or reading. I'm going to the doctor on Monday, hopefully I'll get a steroid injection or something similar & things will be better for a while. I'll try to write more tomorrow.

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farmer's market

Farmer's Market -- 28 June 2025 (Sickle Day, 10th of Harvest, Year 233)

2 quarts of yellow sweet cherries, 1 quart of blue berries, 1 pint of black raspberries, 1 pint of apricots, 1 lb of black beans, 1 lb popcorn, 1 strawberry lemonade, 1 quart of chocolate milk, bacon-gruyere wheel, almond croissant, and a lemon tart.

The fruit stand that I usually buy from saved me an apricot from their limited selection today -- the benefits of being friendly, remembering everyone's pronouns, and occasionally wearing one of my ace flag pins.

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Purrcy and the snake

The other day I heard Purrcy scrabbling in the corner between our bedroom & the laundry room, and then hissing. When I went over to see what was up his tail was all puffed up, as he confronted a new experience:
a milk snake!

( cut for snake pic )

Purrcy was very excited, but wary--he clearly has a "snake instinct" that says this isn't normal prey, but something possibly dangerous. We weren't able to catch the snake, but we're pretty sure it went out the way it came in, it was pretty scared of us (& Purrcy).

Purrcy spent the next half week sniffing & searching for it everywhere, & also being v suspicious of all the cords & any long or snakelike toys. It's like his "snake instinct" was dormant & had to be activated.

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby looks warily at a fuzzy blue, yellow and gray 'snake' toy where it lies next to the baseboard, wondering for the first time if it might be a real snake

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby looks warily at a fuzzy blue, yellow and gray 'snake' toy where it lies next to the baseboard, wondering for the first time if it might be a real snake

The bad part about Our Inside Snek Adventure is that I mentioned it to the housecleaner ... who turns out to be *horribly* snake-phobic. So much that just knowing there'd been a snake in the house, she was too scared to come this week. We're blocking up the Snake Holes, hoping that helps, & she'll try to come back next week.

I'm not going to tell her that this is the 3rd *species* of snake we've seen close to the house, which is made of stone, 100 yrs old, on a stony NJ hillside (others are garter & black racer). Mr Dr Science & I love it! He in the Atlanta suburbs, I in Champaign, IL, we were the kids who caught snakes & brought them in for show & tell in elementary school.

Gloria, our housecleaner, grew up in Jamaica, but she's a city girl through and through. She's prob. too old for snake therapy, I hope this works.

Current Mood: cold boy summer
Current Music: I'll take your breath away

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PTSD Reaction to Sarah McLachlan - due South story, INCOMPLETE, story amnesty

I ran across this Tumblr post about being entitled to financial compensation for having a visceral reaction to hearing "Carry On My Wayward Son" in public, and I made a silly addition, as one does.

Then something stirred in my deep memory and I remembered I'd made the joke I'd just made before.

Here, this is from my gdocs. It's the first two-and-a-bit pages of a story I wrote in 2012. I have no idea what the plot was going to be.

Title: PTSD Reaction to Sarah McLachlan (abandoned WIP)
Fandom: due South
Pairing: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski
Rating: Teen and up
Summary: It took Ray two weeks on the trail to feel like if Fraser got abducted by aliens, he wouldn't necessarily die within the next ten minutes.
Notes: This is my experiment with writing a post-Call of the Wild story and I chickened out right when the plot kicks in, but the RayK voice makes me happy.

( It took Ray two weeks on the trail to feel like if Fraser got abducted by aliens, he wouldn't necessarily die within the next ten minutes. It wasn't the best feeling he'd ever had in his life, that dependence on somebody else for stuff like what to eat and how to pee without freezing off the family jewels, but he got used to it, worked through it, and got to thinking about how Fraser'd been depending on him and Vecchio for years for Chicago survival stuff. That thought took the edge off of the sheer unadulterated what the fuck of the Arctic. )

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crafting,
recs

Battleship incoming, crafting and recs

The fifth season of Battleship is about to start. Freeform tag suggestions has closed and is being made into a final list while canon/pairing/character nominations continue. It's looking to be a huge exchange again this year, they've even put a hard cap of 280 signups in the rules. (Last year, when sign ups absolutely exploded, they debated closing early if they reached 280 but it ending up closing just shy of that which was still SO much more than earlier years. According to the AO3 profile pages-which will be vaguely but not 100% accurate for various reasons-it went from 63 signups in 2020 to 62 then 80 then 131 then 263). I'm always a little torn about Battleship, I love aspects of it, but some others are oooof. Apparently signups won't be on AO3 itself this year but via some kind of signup form and will be separate from the AO3 signup/prompt collection? But you have to do both? Or Something. IDK, hopefully it'll make more sense once it actually opens. We'll see how it goes.

Since my last post I finished the Use-Up-This-One-Stashed-Yarn afghan I'd been working on (I had to redo the border 4x to not lose at yarn chicken, but I succeeded eventually!) and made another rug. This time I tried something different with the rug and just followed a green->blue->brown order of adding new strips and didn't stress over making full rounds of any one color nor bothered to try to match up the runner with the color being knotted over it. The result was quite different, but I like it.

53”x42" give or take 'Vintage Lace' afghan

Three tshirt rug, 27” x 18” give or take

And, last but not least, 2 weeks of

recthething recs (Tumblr art for Batman, Discworld, Dungeon Meshi, Guardian, MDZS/Untamed, Sherlock Holmes-ACD, ST:TOS):

Batman (DCU)
- The Oracle’s hand (love the way the computer circuitry lines mimics spiderwebbing in this)

Discworld
- Nanny Ogg (love this art's take on her and the witches)

Delicious in Dungeon | Dungeon Meshi
- Farcille witch AU- nothing better than crafting potions with your gf (this is so cute)

Guardian
- Sleepy cats (absolutely adorable art of Da Qing sprawled over Zhao Yunlan with both sacked out, sleeping on the couch)

MDZS/The Untamed
- Lan Wanji's morning hair routine (hilarious comic)
- The Headshaker (The animation on the fan is incredible)
- I’ll settle for the ghost of you (this is jut gorgeous)
- when you’re starting to forget your soulmate’s face and there’s nothing you can do about it (oh ooof the feeling behind this one)

Sherlock Holmes- ACD
- doctor, soldier, poet, lover (wonderful set of Watson art, love the gun in the rain one in particular)

Star Trek: TOS
- Whale Song (love this ST IV: The Voyage Home art)

Current Mood: roaring
Current Music: But I don't bargain with a mob

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You Can't Keep Me From Singing - someone else's filk

You Can't Keep Me From Singing by Gordon MacDonald, Jr., a filk of How Can I Keep From Singing.

Reproduced here so if Mudcat keeps being impossible to search, I can find it again:
( Whenever I begin to sing there's rising agitation )

(no subject)

rejoice with me my friends for it is No Longer Disgustingly Hot (for now)

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writing offer

Happy Yuri Day!

June 25th is Yuri Day in Japan, and, why not, here too.

If you would like a drabble or poem of f/f in a fandom I know, please prompt me! Crossovers, rare or never-before-conceived-of pairings, all are welcome.

Since today is Yuri Day, male characters are not invited to today's prompts, even Rule 63'ed. As a caveat, I would technically accept Thirteenth Doctor prompts under that stricture as the Doctor is genderfluid, but since I only saw a few episodes of Thirteen, I don't have much to say about her.

Ideally, leave me: Poem or Drabble, Fandom(s), Character/Character, Prompt.

Feel free to spread the word.

the air is soup

It is so damn hot. I made honeycomb buns (loose on a half-sheet pan, not in a mini muffin pan) and honey cake and whole wheat sandwich bread last night because at a certain point the kitchen is going to be hot whether or not I have the oven on.

Saturday I ran *counts on fingers* TEN errands. Got a pile of books and physical media at the library booksale for under $20, dropped off the things going to Goodwill, groceries, Walmart, post office, bought lavender and rosemary plants, etc. I got one duplicate CD because my spreadsheet isn't complete but at $0.50 apiece that's a gamble I'm willing to make. And I met a very sweet GSD named Bella, who leans heavily on your shins to make sure you pay attention to her.

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meme

Meme stolen from nverland

( Meme )

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That art show thing I mentioned last post

I posted a while ago about how I'd been really getting into pottery this year. That remains true, and shows no signs of stopping. It's just so fun! I still take a 3-hour class once a week at a member-owned studio near me; I think wistfully about spending more time on it too, but for various reasons including but not limited to the busyness of my life in general, that dedicated weekly slot is what works right now.

Back in late February, I spotted a flyer that someone had hung up on the studio bulletin board. It was a call for Boston-area artists to submit art inspired by Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, as part of an art show and book circle event co-organized by two local stores, The Local Hand and JustBook-ish.

I'd been meaning to read Parable of the Sower for ages, and the idea of doing a pottery piece inspired by a book seemed really fun -- like a Yuletide prompt, but for physical objects. Also, if your piece was accepted, you got a $500 stipend and 75% of the sale price if your piece sold, and let's be real, that was also extremely motivating.

And motivation was useful! Because the deadline was just over a month away. Pottery has a lot of built-in wait time while things dry, get fired, etc, so on a once-a-week schedule that was going to be pretty tight.

So I read the book, and loved it -- I'd been told that it was brilliant, which it is, and that it's brutal, which it is, but all of the (accurate!) discussions of its brutality hadn't conveyed the fierce pragmatism and focus of how Butler writes hope and community, and that's what I loved most -- and by the next week, I had a plan.

( About my piece, and the process, and also noodling about pottery and art -- this got very long )

Current Mood: ashamed of my country
Current Music: Rockin' and a-reelin'

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US Politics: John McCain finally gets his wish

If only the US gave more of a shit about separation of powers, which gives Congress the power to declare war. Congress.

Seems pretty straightforward to me as a thing the Constitution says POTUS can't fucking do.

I hope you didn't find out about the unprovoked attack on Iran by the US from a Destiel news meme.

Current Mood: charmed
Current Music: I'm walkin' on sunshine

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Recommendation: sandbox environment by shamoosh (Murderbot books)

I devoured [Bad username or site: shamoosh @ archiveofourownorg]'s sandbox environment series, which is grade-A Murderbot/ART set post-System Collapse. I love the way they both need and achieve intimacy. The SecUnit voice is perfection; the ART is scheming and satisfactorily aware of so many things. The technology usage is excellent.

And SecUnit bluescreens over being asked to choose its own clothing.

Come for the great characterizations! Stay for the hysterically funny plot beats!

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farmer's market

Farmer's Market -- 21 June 2025 (Onion Day, 3rd of Meadows, Year 233)

Brown sugar kettle corn, a quart of strawberries, a pint of blueberries, 2 pints of black raspberries, 3 cups of saskatoons, 2 quarts of sour cherries, a half-pint of black currants, almond croissant, bacon-gruyere wheel, lemon tart, and then I picked up my friend's CSA share as they and their spouse are out of town for the weekend and got: garlic scapes, bunching onions, sugar snap peas, mini romaine (broken romaine leaves in a plastic bag), red leaf lettuce, kale, and red beets.

Current Mood: inspired
Current Music: You can cry and I probably won't hear you

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Vids that will never be: It's loud with the shopvac on

seascribble recommended a brilliant Murderbot series, shamoosh's sandbox environment, in which ART and Murderbot have all the Romantic feelings about each other. I got partway through it, flailing at the author and Sea the whole time, till I ran into:

My code didn’t literally hide me from ART’s sensors, not the way I edited myself out of security footage and erased my trail in lesser systems. ART was too complicated and too powerful for that to work for long. Instead I’d gotten my drones to emit basically white noise for all of ART’s sensors. It knew where I was because that was obvious, but everything else was just junk data, erratic nonsense. It didn’t need to be convincing, it just needed to not be—whatever I was feeling/doing at the time. My code had worked perfectly. Maybe too perfectly.

And then I started singing Jonathan Coulton's Shop Vac song (animated text video | lyrics).

Sea: There’s a vid there

Petra Lemaitre: I -- ack.
I'm not sure I WANT that song vidded for any fandom

Sea: It’s so catchy. It’s giving Obikin au

Petra Lemaitre: oh nooooo

Sea: Or honestly for the Anakin/padmé shippers who aren’t delusional
It’s very apt.

Petra Lemaitre: wails It's such a good awful song and now I have lightsabers = shop vac in my head
Padmé is watching the TV (democracy dying to thunderous applause)

Sea: RIPPPPP
I think it would also be a fun Perrin and Mon Mothma vid but you’d have to cut out a verse I think because of limited footage

And Sea suggested that, in lieu of the zillion brand names Star Wars can't be arsed to invent, we can ~~steal~~ borrow with permission the off-brands around us. Canada has its Aggressively Generic Stuff. Iran has its StarBox. Look around you: what a world of wonders!