juushika

littlefics posting in

Event: Seasons of Drabbles is an exchange for the creation of drabbles and drabble variants. The minimum is 100 words.

Event link: Dreamwidth | AO3 Collection

Due date: Saturday, January 31 @ 11:59pm Eastern Standard time (Countdown).

Pinch hit link: Please view the details and claim it at this post.

PH 4 - 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018) RPF, 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018), 镇魂 | Guardian - priest

PH 6 - 呪術廻戦 | Jujutsu Kaisen (Anime), 呪術廻戦 | Jujutsu Kaisen (Manga), Wind Breaker (Anime), Outlast (Video Games), Given (Anime), Wind Breaker - にいさとる | Nii Satoru (Manga)

PH 9 - 仮面ライダーガッチャード | Kamen Rider Gotchard (TV), Ultraman Arc (TV), あぶない刑事 | Abunai Deka (TV), Kamen Rider OOO, Kamen Rider V3, Choujin Sentai Jetman, わが青春のアルカディア | Waga Seishun no Arcadia | Arcadia of My Youth (1982), 快傑ズバット | Kaiketsu Zubat (TV), Kamen Rider Ryuki

PH 10 - Fireworks (1947)/Succession (TV 2018), O Fantasma (2000), O Fantasma (2000)/Succession (TV 2018), The Sergeant (1968), Succession (TV 2018)

juushika

Title: A Cruel God Reigns (Zankokuna Kami ga Shihai Suru)
Author: Moto Hagio
Published: 1992-2001
Rating: 4.5 of 5
Page Count: 3260 (202+194+184+191+192+188+190+190+190+190+190+189+192+192+191+190+202)
Total Page Count: 562,155
Text Number: 2121
Read Because: saw this mentioned when browsing a random Tumblr
Review: I didn't realize until the last page that this is by the author of The Heart of Thomas, and then suddenly it was so surprise that this is so good. Because it is so good. In two halves: a teen boy is pressured into a sexual relationship by his new stepfather; and the abuse has a long tail, explored through the protagonist's relationship with his step brother. I feel like most takes on this narrative would be either half, and therefore neater; intentionally, this denies neat: character arcs circle, regress, and stagnate; people try to help in bad ways and for the wrong reasons; the supporting cast is awash in traumas related or not; there is more context, but rarely satisfactory closure. And some of this is touched by the over-the-topness of manga, but for once I'm not frustrated: it's the same shojo styling as The Heart of Thomas, exploring suffering through a stylized, romantic lens without sacrificing depth. A mess, certainly, but with intention, care, and deep sympathy.

Current Music: Silhouettes - Kissing Cousins

juushika

Title: A Short Stay in Hell
Author: Steven L. Peck
Published: Strange Violin Editions, 2012 (2011)
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 110
Total Page Count: 558,895
Text Number: 2104
Read Because: saw this requested in a fic exchange, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Not to be glib, but just read Borges. That said, this is short, and less campy than the opening lets on. What it does best is extrapolate scale—massive, horrifying, existential scale, banal yet cosmic. The social element feels written by a straight white man, gestures made at murder cults and the rise of ritual, at the transitory-or-not role of sexual relationships, pretty underwhelming takes, all less successful than the premise itself.

Current Music: Rocky Coast/EDT - The Huntress and the Holder of Hands

cupcake_goth

I'm starting to seriously consider selling my VINTAGE Fluevog Swordfish shoes and boots. I love them. LOVE. I never wear them, because even tho' the 3" heel are wide and sturdy, my back has made it pretty clear that those shoes and boots are not made for walking. Not for me.

I'm tempted to hold onto the boots so I can use them as vases for dried flowers (I can't find the image on Pinterest, but I saw something similar done and it looked great), but I will first need to have a probably convoluted discussion with the Stroppy One about putting outdoor footwear on any furniture, even after they've been carefully cleaned. (His weirdness around this is too long to get into here, but it starts from a superstition around not putting footwear on chairs or tables.)

---

INCREDIBLY shallow whining related to the state of the world (because if I start thinking seriously about things, I freeze in panic): I guess I should have purchased the pretty pretty dress from the Ukrainian designer earlier, because who knows if the $USD will be worth anything and if anyone outside the US will be willing to ship anything to a US address.

---

I need help from the sewing and costuming hive mind! I have a many dresses like this. (Mine don't have the wide sash/belt.) The skirt is two rectangles gathered at the waist, with the pockets inset at those side seams. I want to occasionally lift the skirt to about knee-length so I can wear the dress with different skirts. I've tried actual skirt lifters, and they didn't work well. I tried ribbons sewn on the outside of the waist with matching ribbons sewn on the inside at the point where the ruffle is attached to the skirt, thus catching a bundle of the skirt in a loop of ribbon that shows on the outside. (The Madwoman in the Attic saw this attempt, clutched her head, said, "NO", and left the room.) So I'm out of ideas. Help?

rionaleonhart

AO3 may be down, but never fear; I've brought a third batch of

threesentenceficathon fills!

Are they for fandoms you're in? W... well, no. They're still almost exclusively for the Goes Wrong Show, with one short and spoilery Silent Hill 2 fill. But they are fanfiction nonetheless.

( Silent Hill 2, James, 40 words, prompt: 'I love you. I'm sorry.' )

( Assorted ficlets for the Goes Wrong Show, mainly Chris and Robert, 1,400 words total. )

I was doing so well at keeping to three sentences to begin with! But here we are now.

osprey_archer

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans, John Marzluff and Tony Angell. Full of fun anecdotes about crows bringing people gifts, playing with dogs and cats, gathering silently around the corpse of a fellow crow, etc. I found the neurology stuff very boring but I know some people are into that. In general I think we should move away from describing animals who do smart things as acting “like humans.”

Also Ngaio Marsh’s Singing in the Shrouds, because of course I couldn’t resist diving in once I’d bought it. This one features a serial killer, which to be honest is not my favorite kind of murder mystery, but it takes place on shipboard (Year of Sail strikes again!) among a cast of eccentric characters, which is my favorite kind of Marsh so I still had a great time despite the serial killer of it all. Stayed up late to find out the identity of the murderer and was quite satisfied with the identity of the killer if not the neat Freudian-ness of the explanation for the crimes, but listen, if you WILL read murder mysteries written in the 1930s-1960s or so, you’re asking for overly neat Freudian explanations of crimes and you know it.

What I’m Reading Now

I’ve slogged about a third of the way through National Velvet, to the part where Velvet wins a horse in a raffle and also gets five horses from an old guy who writes her into his will and then immediately shoots himself. (!!!) Does it pick up from here, or is it more of the same?

I was briefly STYMIED in In the First Circle, because my copy is missing thirty pages!!! It looks like there was a production error, as the book looks perfectly fine (no pages torn out etc) but nonetheless jumps directly from page 476 to page 509.

However, I had the fortunate thought to check a different library, which helpfully had an ebook (of the same translation, even!). So I read through the missing pages and am now back on track, provided of course that there are no more nasty shocks of this sort.

What I Plan to Read Next

Hampton Sides’ The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook. Yes, indeed, Year of Sail continues.

tamaranth

2026/013: Lingo: A Language Spotter's Guide to Europe — Gaston Dorran, translated by Alison Edwards

In autonomous Greenland, Danish initially retained more official functions than in the autonomous Faroe Islands. But that has since changed as well: in 2009, Kalaallisut became the one and only official administrative language. With this move, Greenland achieved a unique position: the only country of the Americas (yes, Greenland is part of the Americas), from Canada all the way down to Chile, where the indigenous language doesn’t play second fiddle to that of its colonial master. [p. 56]

Subtitled 'Around Europe in Sixty Languages' in some editions, 'A Language-Spotter’s Guide to Europe' in others, this is an entertaining and readable discussion of linguistic diversity in Europe. ( Read more... )

Current Mood: curious

ciexmod posting in

consent_issues_exchange

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

siderea

Hey, Americans! Do you live around or south of the Mason-Dixon line? If so, your weather report for later this week is shaping up to be a bit exciting. Looks like Actual Winter will be visiting places that historically have been poorly prepared for this sort of thing, i.e. TX, the South, and the mid-Atlantic.

(Also eventually the NE, but a forecast of a few feet of snow is threatening us with a good time.)

H/t to the RyanHallYall YT channel. He's a well-reputed amateur, but his report is congruent with what I'm seeing in conventional weather reports:

Watch on YouTube

https://youtube.com/shorts/nh4JEVGWfFU

Good luck and remember running a charcoal grill in your living room is a dumb way to die.

siderea

I found this intriguing. YouTuber KnittingCultLady, who is an Air Force veteran and author about two books on military culture from the standpoint of cults(!), put out this rather frustrated video clarifying how members of the military respond to illegal orders. The tl;dr is they will follow orders of ambiguous legality, and refuse to follow orders of obvious illegality, and what is obviously illegal may not be what civilians think.

2026 Jan 18: KnittingCultLady on YT: Some Examples of Recent Malicious Compliance from the Military, ALSO Listen Carefully To My Words:

Watch on YouTube

She doesn't put it this way, but it sounds from what she says that what makes something obviously illegal is that it resulted in a courtmartial or other nigh-universal condemnation when tried previously. Orders that are for doing things that are war crimes by the letter of the law but which did not result in prosecution or other negative consequences for the perpetrators when done in the past do not trigger the sense that they are illegal, e.g. if it was okay for Bush to seize Noriega, then clearly it must be legal for Trump to seize Maduro.

rionaleonhart

After seeing Christmas Carol Goes Wrong on stage, I bought the official script; I thought it would be a nice way to remind myself of my evening at the theatre. And it is! But it's also interesting to see how many things had been changed or added by the time I saw it in performance.

Flicking through, here are some of the more interesting differences I've noticed between the script version and the actual performance I saw on the fourteenth of January!

( Some differences between the script and the actual staged version of Christmas Carol Goes Wrong. )

Finally, a delightful little exchange from the script that I don't remember being in the show itself:

Sandra: Listen, we all know the Cornley Gazette's official policy has been not to review our shows since our immersive production of Dracula.
Robert: The small print on the ticket clearly said I would enter his house and bite him.

tamaranth

2026/012: Troth — E H Lupton

“Don’t be so bourgeois, darling. You’re a powerful magician and your lover is a retired god. Of course things are going to be a bit unusual.”
“It’s terrifying.”
“Eh, bien?” Mariah made a dismissive French noise. “It’s love. It’s supposed to be terrifying.” [p. 191]

Third in the series, and the last (for now) of the novels that focus on Ulysses and Sam. It begins with the two moving into a new apartment together, and meeting the neighbours (Vikram and Sita) who have a ghost problem -- and, it turns out, a connection to Sam's family.

Both Ulysses and Sam are growing up.( Read more... )

Current Mood: cheerful

rionaleonhart

The

threesentenceficathon continues, now in its second prompt post! Here's a second batch of my fills.

In this roundup: a Clair Obscur ficlet! See, I can still think about things that aren't the Goes Wrong Show.

And also six Goes Wrong Show ficlets.

( Clair Obscur, Maelle/Verso, 60 words, prompt: keeping secrets. )

( Assorted ficlets for the Goes Wrong Show, mainly Chris and Robert, 850 words total. )

I get so excited whenever anyone comments on my Goes Wrong fills to say they don't know the canon but enjoyed the characters. I'm like some sort of mad evangelist for Robert Grove.

3sfmod posting in

threesentenceficathon

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

sixbeforelunch

two log cabins with snow on the roofs in a wintery forest the text snowflake challenge january 1 - 31 in white cursive text

Challenge #10: Big mood. Create a mood board.

( Cut for a largeish image )

cupcake_goth

Behold the shiny! Which was almost entirely paid for by Poshmark profits, so in terms of “real” money wasn’t unreasonably expensive.

—-

My god does my hair need dying. It’s not going to happen any time soon, but I sigh every time I look in the mirror right now. There are so many projects I want to do right now, and I KNOW I must not. Even the ones that would be something I could do while sitting on the couch watching movies. Getting up to put on a movie leaves me shaky, which is a sure sign I need to keep resting. Hmmph.

—-

Yesterday I learned that Miss Erzabet No Biting has blanket preferences. I had switched around some of the blankets I was under on the couch, with a polyester knitted one on top. She would walk onto my lap, look bewildered, and hop off. As soon as I switched things back to having the woven cotton ones as the top layer, she immediately settled down. Yes, my cat is spoiled.

—-

Speaking of the kitties, they turn 15 this year, which means we’ve owned them for almost half our marriage. That’s weird to think about.

oracne

No dayjob today because we're off for MLK Day.

It snowed all day yesterday, starting before dawn, but nothing stuck to the sidewalk until after dark, by which time it was still snowing and I was just not up for shoveling. Which meant, of course, that first thing this morning, after the overnight freeze, there was a layer of ice on the sidewalk. With a great deal of effort and about an hour in two segments (pre- and post-breakfast), I managed to break up and remove enough to make it reasonably safe. I hope. My hands were a little shaky at the end, which indicates I exerted myself more than I should have. Our house is not that wide, thankfully.

The temperature is supposed to go above freezing this afternoon, so hopefully that softens the remainder enough that I can scrape it up. Putting salt on top of ice doesn't help, it just melts the top so it can refreeze in a new and more slick state. Nope!

I have a free ticket for the Orchestra's MLK Day concert this afternoon; I was originally planning to attend with my friend who is now out of town because of a death in the family. We shall see if I recover from my exertions enough to attend. I am not worried about wasting a spot, they generally hand out more tickets than there are seats for these events, and tell you a seat is not guaranteed.

It's possible more snow will arrive in the coming week. Whee. If it does, I hope it doesn't affect our choir kickoff on Saturday, January 24th. Also, I hope the scores get sent out soon, as I need to make a trip to the library to print mine.

I'm back to the office tomorrow and Wednesday.

tamaranth

2026/011: Old Time Religion — E H Lupton

...there was something delightful about being able to feel Ulysses’s emotions, even if it was also sort of terrifying. Ulysses had big, messy, complex feelings that reminded Sam of dahlias, so bright and intricate. [p. 153]

As soon as I'd finished Dionysus in Wisconsin I went on to this sequel, set a few months later. Ulysses has almost finished his dissertation (which is about Sam and 'the problem of demigods') and winter is over. All seems promising until Livia, Ulysses' ex, turns up with a tale of woe about a murdered husband.( Read more... )

Current Mood: cheerful

cupcake_goth

It has been decided that I’m NOT going to buy that stripy set from Blackwood Castle, because minim linked me to an eBay auction for a stunning piece of jewelry and reminded me that stripy goth clothes are relatively easy to find. I’m waiting for my Poshmark profits to hit PayPal, and then I’ll hit Buy It Now.

—-

The Stroppy One has decided it’s necessary for him to remind me over and over that my #1 priority, my only chore right now, is to rest as much as possible. Especially because he leaves for a show on Thursday, so he won’t be around to look after me for a few days. Yes, the Madwoman in the Attic will be around, but our schedules are somewhat offset.

—-

Someone please remind me that my new boss asking if we need to set up some sort of medical accommodation for me for the next few weeks means she wants me to be okay, not that she’s annoyed I’m sick and this will be noted on my permanent record or something? Because I know my reaction is PTSD from previous bad managers, but the Brain Raccoons are doing their little song and dance, because of course they are.

osprey_archer

I have returned from a weekend of dissipation in Bloomington! We visited FOUR local bookstores, during which book-shopping spree I bought:

Used copies of Gary Paulsen’s The Cookcamp and Ngaio Marsh’s Singing in the Shrouds, both from the public library.

Used DVDs of Chernobyl and the Ruth Wilson Jane Eyre for myself, plus Brideshead Revisited and season 3 of the 1960s Batman for a friend (who will be therefore enabled to return my copy of Brideshead Revisited)

Mary Stolz’s Ready or Not, which has simply gorgeous endpapers (would any of my fellow Stolz fans like a crack at this book after I’m done?)

And Knight Owl and Early Bird, a birthday present for my niece, whose birthday is not until March, but who am I to turn down an opportunity to support the Book Corner? (I’ll probably also buy her a picture book from my beloved Von’s.)

We also hit up Goods for Cooks, which tragically did not have my beloved dark chocolate hobnobs, but I DID buy a sieve and a garden herb themed dishtowel and a bright springy oven mitt. (I liked to have seasonal dish towels, oven mitts, napkins etc; an easy way to decorate for the seasons.) In between the sieve and the potato masher I got for Christmas, I feel rich in kitchen ware.

And we went to my friend Becky’s house to hang out with the dog and three cats and the baby, who gave us the grumpy Churchill face for about half an hour before deciding that we were all right and toddling over to the coffee table (with the help of her baby walker) to pick up one of our shortbread cookies. To eat it? No. Just to hold it. An interesting texture perhaps.

And then Caitlin and I went back to her place and watched a couple Poirots and ate more cookies, and then I went to bed and read The Cookcamp, a short memoir about the time he spent with his grandmother as a small child when she was working at a road-grading camp, companion piece to Alida's Song and The Quilt. Sweet and poignant if you enjoy a childhood memoir.

Then this morning I drove home and began rewatching Chernobyl. (What a good show! Already watched two episodes and only paused with difficulty to make dinner.) A most successful visit.

Profile

juushika

January 2026

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Style Credit

Style: Neutral Good for Practicality by timeasmymeasure

Reading

Seasons of Drabbles: Initial Pinch Hits due January 31

Manga Review: A Cruel God Reigns by Moto Hagio

Book Review: A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck

Frivolous dithering

Chris Has A Good Time In None Of These.

Wednesday Reading Meme

2026/013: Lingo: A Language Spotter's Guide to Europe — Gaston Dorran, translated: Alison Edwards

All required works are in!

PSA: US, pay attention to weather [US, meteo]

An explanation of US military perspective and behavior re illegal orders [mil/US, Ω]

God Bless Us, Everyone?

2026/012: Troth — E H Lupton

I'm A Plate And This Is Great.

2026 Three Sentence Ficathon - Post #2

snowflake day 10: mood board

I guess being couch-bound means I post a lot

Snow!

2026/011: Old Time Religion — E H Lupton

(no subject)

Bloomington

Profile

January 2026

Expand Cut Tags

Tags

Style Credit