allekha | Network

Yosemite’s green meadows are hiding a 150-year-old problem

Yosemite's Tuolumne Meadows are losing soil carbon more than a century after heavy sheep grazing, and restoring the damaged ecosystem could take decades.

Yikes. This makes me wonder about the United Kingdom, where sheep have stripped most places. They have some great rewilding programs ... but those are measuring green cover and species diversity, not carbon.

Current Mood: busy

sovay

I don't see that I needed to start running a fever last night. I seem not to have plague and assume I would be worse if I had flu. I just ate a couple of pieces of challah with lox cream cheese, at least. Have some links.

1. Not in fact having read any Leonid Andreyev unless one counts the transitive exposure of Sjöstrom's He Who Gets Slapped (1924), I was incredibly struck by "The Alarm Bell" (1901). Anyone who knows Sona Verdi should tell her that I would read her translation of a collection of his stories stat.

2. I had never heard of the Negro League Jewishness of Oscar Levis. The line on Caribbean Sephardic descent is fascinating in and of itself.

3. Since it had been ten years since I saw Itan Tiray in the incomparably clinging Demon (2015), still the best dybbuk film in any country since Michał Waszyński, I wondered what he was doing lately. The answer aside from his pro-Palestinian activism seems to be the WWII noir Wild, Wild East (2026). I'll have to find him in something without the Holocaust under it sometime, but until then I'm in.

4. Gordon Chapman-Fox's Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan is not a Ghost Box project, but it shares their hauntological interest in failed futures and the sfnal gap between optimism and realization. It isn't satire like Scarfolk. It seems concerned with real places and time. I discovered his power-line-humming music with The Nation's Most Central Location (2023) and wished Mark Fisher had been around to review it.

5. I hadn't seen that Project Gutenberg Canada had ceased to exist as such. I read all my early Cyril Hare there. At least Faded Page still seems to be with us.

6. Speaking of Canada, if geographically enabled please tell Vancouver Island University not to pull out of its student refugee program. This is not a good time anywhere to shut the door on anyone.

7. To my surprise, the TNT equivalent of the meteor that exploded over Cape Cod Bay this spring has been revised to 0.5 kt. It was associated with no known showers or parent bodies. A neat thing to be able to study.

spatch made a point last week of ordering a nice thing from Lofty Pursuits' Public Displays of Confection, whose vintage-machined hard candies we had not had in years. We have yet to get the tin open of Ghost Tangerine Sours, but the Tupelo Honeycomb is a knockout.

Current Music: Oppenheimer MKII, "Embrace the Dark"

ysabetwordsmith

Today is sunny and mild.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 10/27/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 10/27/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

.

Current Mood: busy

schneefink

Heartfall - A Tale in Three Lives, a free Third Life visual novel rpg – I was very excited for this! A collective project by more than 60 fans, very cool. And it did not disappoint at all, so well done.
No knowledge of Third Life required, though some routes rely a bit more on canon allusions than others. (Would be interesting to hear how it actually plays canon-blind.)

I watched Grian play it before I did, he did

vague spoilers

the fishing route, of course he did, he fell for every lure the devs put in for him, it was great.

Then I finally had time to play myself! The game has 12 routes and 36 endings, I would like to at least check out every route, but that might take a while.

My first route was route 1, The Dark Forest,

very vague spoilers

in which I joined the Crastle.

My first route

The first time I played I had Grian build his own little base and decide to stay there even though it broke his promise to Scar – which led to Grian being invited to the Crastle! I was very excited about that, and also Etho was there a lot, my favorite team.
The plot with the mystic trees was very spooky, great growing tension, and then! Attack of the trees! Villain!Scar was so good. Impulse and Tango get Etho, who was always hard to pin down! And from there on it was just one bit of delicious angst after another. Telling Bdubs that Etho was not coming, Cleo saying that they don't know if they could bring themself to hurt Etho like this, as they are now, and Bdubs of course agreeing… The conversation between Grian and Etho at the rampart: Etho not quite gone yet, Etho saying he preferred building things for them, and that he can trust Cleo to take care of Bdubs… And then Red King Cleo! Who needs a Hand, to set the pyre on fire. Fantastic art too.
Bdubs saying that Etho will always focus on him, no freaking tree is going to change that, and using that to help Cleo and Grian get away…
Grian alone in the forest, thinking that at least he helped build something he wanted to protect, even though he didn't get to keep it. Then Bdubs and Etho showing up but they resist the trees for long enough until Cleo shows up to burn the whole forest, with Grian the only survivor, standing alone on the ramparts of the Crastle… so good.
Then I went back and got the second ending of that route, with worse affinity with Bdubs, which led to Bdubs and Etho catching Grian at the end and Cleo having to set all three of them ablaze as one last mercy. Beautiful tragedy. And have I mentioned the art is gorgeous?

Next, I played route 8, Music is Magic, and teamed up with

very vague spoilers

Impulse.

My second route

Next time I decided to help Impulse with his music box. Which led to finding Pearl! A wolf shapeshifter, exciting to find her, I clocked her immediately. This was a route with many mysteries, with the very explicit time loop – though that was left open at the end, I'm curious how much that'll show up in other routes. (Also, one of the books mentioned someone (Grian?) getting wings, veeery curious about that…) It was also a route with many side quests, and overall I think quite a bit longer.
It's cool how previous routes change impressions: Scar was alone in the desert here, too, and when Cleo and Bdubs quickly forgave him for his attack I of course immediately thought back to the trees… The shifting alliances in this one were a bit more confusing, and there were some details that I think would not have worked as well without having seen Third Life, but the ending was still very dramatic. I really liked the flowers growing where someone lost their final life (and of course Scar's were sunflowers.) And getting Impulse back with the music box was very nice :) (That was the second ending I got, the first time Grian and Pearl were killed by Bdubs.)
I will not overthink the implications of the time loop, Impulse and Grian both being on red at the end, Pearl not showing up in (some?) other routes…
I was surprised that they made a point out of saying Pearl has little memory where she came from, when as far as we know none of them do. They do evidently remember some things, like Grian saying he is a builder, but none of them seem worried about it. Though they are all shocked by the revivals, so it seems they all come from worlds where people only die once, probably.
Other thoughts: reinforcing an iron sword with diamonds is not how crafting works xD never mind all the other magic.

My third route was route 4, Ashes and Alliances,

barely spoilers

Joel's.

Spoilers

This route was very much a case of "I can see what you are doing but it's working anyway (mostly.)" Very deliberate invoking of loyalty & sacrifice tropes. Which I love, and I also enjoyed them here, but it did almost feel a bit too thick at times. It didn't help that I was frequently annoyed by Joel here at the beginning, and then felt a little railroaded. I think it would be less so if, after Cleo burned down the cabin, there had actually been a choice of joining Dogwarts instead – or at least a better pretense of a choice, since of course an actual additional path would take a lot of work. Because Cleo did just burn down the cabin and while Ren and Martyn have been very unsettling and threatening – great job with that – I was still very surprised that going to them at least for supplies wasn't even seriously discussed.
That said, overall I really liked the story of Joel pissing off Cleo for no good reason, Cleo wanting to pay him back but it goes wrong, and then Cleo apologizing and making amends. It was still funny how often it was later brought up that "Cleo took us in when we had nothing" when Cleo was the one responsible for that in the first place ^^ I also really liked Bdubs and Joel going from antagonism to all four of them being ~family by the end. And the final battle had especially cool music. All the music in the game is very good.
The first ending I got was the one where Grian dies – which I later found out was the least common of the three, according to Steam achievements, to my surprise. It had a nice "several months later" epilogue with all the survivors leaving happily in the castle together, which I think is the best ending I've had so far? (Again, let's not think about everyone on red or the time loop reset.)
Then I tried out the "leave" ending and it really hammers home that it's the wrong choice, possibly the worst ending yet.
Then I looked up a guide how to get to the ending where Joel dies which I was sure exists, and it does: Grian has to tell him he would sacrifice himself for Joel multiple times, and then Joel sacrifices himself for Grian instead, and as a result Grian loses it and kills not only Ren but also Scar and Cleo until he's the only survivor. Grian killing Scar was a shock! His sudden violence really surprised me. Tbf I picked the lines specifically to unlock the ending and was less thinking of the character, and they do show a more brutal side so it's not entirely out of nowhere.
Other thoughts:
Interesting how death always seems pretty painful & serious to Grian but to faze Scar much less, or he pretends that is the case. Hm. Will monitor further.
I was also shocked by Pearl attacking and killing Grian out of nowhere, and I'll definitely have to keep an eye out for her in other routes (don't remember seeing her in the first one but there might have been a wolf in the background.) Maybe the music box was really calling to her or something.
So far I'm 3/3 for Scar ending up alone in the desert – I wonder if there are routes where he teams up with someone else, or if it's really Grian or no-one for him. This time instead of being possessed by a mystic tree he just got really really into explosives.

Next I took route 2, Dog-Eat-Dog World,

vague spoilers

Dogwarts.

Spoilers

The longest route so far but so good. The writing was great. And just the right mix between choices offered and not, and of things happening in the background. Excellent route for people like me who have a terrible time with decisions xD I got the "Back Where It Started" ending on my first try, another beautiful tragedy.
I don't remember when I first started to suspect that Martyn might have caused Grian to fall from the bridge – possibly not until overhearing the conversation between Martyn and Ren at night, before that I thought it was likely that it had been an accident. I originally wanted to do a canon playthrough but turns out I probably should not have complained to Martyn so much ^^ I really liked Martyn and Ren in this one, and the contrast between them. Also Etho – poor guy got a very sad ending as well. The lone lavender and the burned-down ruin in the marsh :(
When I first saw the coneflower in front of the Castle I thought it was a sunflower at first and thought Scar could not possibly have died before another confrontation. (If this was the first route I had played I would not have known why there were flowers there and what they meant at all.) Fortunately I was right. But I did not expect that confrontation to start with Scar immediately killing Ren and end with Grian killing Scar! Only for Grian to then finally confront the truth about the murder on the bridge, confront Martyn, kill him, and then throw himself into the ravine.
I replayed the route right after that, starting from day 4 and this time supporting Martyn as much as I could – which ended with Martyn killing Grian at the ravine and the "All For Nought" ending, "refuse to remove your rose tinted glasses." Brutal. Without even any more words! I thought Martyn would at least try to justify himself again, but no, he took the cowardly way out.
There's two more endings in this route, but I didn't find a good guide yet so I'll probably come back to them later.
Cc!Martyn played this route, amazing. I watched it afterwards: he decided to back Martyn all the way and got a different ending, in which Martyn kills BigB before he can say out loud that it was Martyn who killed Grian. cc!Martyn repeatedly going "oh no, I'm horrible!" was very funny. Then Ren attacked Martyn in a fit of fury, accidentally killing him and also injuring Grian. Martyn blows up with Dogwarts (rigged to blow by Scar), Grian kills Ren for killing Martyn, Scar thinks Grian wants to come back home to the desert with him but Grian kills him instead. Scar is confused and doesn't understand, and says it's not fair because he can´t even be angry at Grian and he's glad it was him.

The next one I did was route 7, Welcome Home, Ally:

vague spoilers

a double alliance with Jimmy&Joel and Scar.

Spoilers

I wanted to join Jimmy, also allying with Scar was a misclick – but a fortunate one! Another route that is excellent for people who are so bad at making decisions ^^ This one really leaned into it, too. The repeated [Admit it!!] when being interrogated by Jimmy and Joel are a great effect.
The route started very light-hearted – the Bread Pirates and their bakery and their outfits! Impulse died because Bdubs has rabies and bit him *g*
Only to become a lot darker when Grian, confronted with his double-alliance being possibly discovered, chose to take drastic action and killed Jimmy. Holy shit, Grian. Then he leaves with Scar, who bakes him bread decorated with flowers – very sweet, like before that the drawing Scar made of them and the base – except the flowers are poisonous and they both die. *facepalm* On my first play-through I then tried to break the alliance with Scar, but it didn't let me go through with it after Scar told me how all of his plans revolved around him and Grian together… Joel then wants to burn Scar's house down, Grian decided to stop him, which led to the bakery burning down. (Will I ever get to see the volcano?) After Grian's confession of his double-dealings they decide to fake his death, but because of Dogwarts' trap Grian actually dies. Then there's a final battle. And on my first attempt I got the worst ending in this route: Scar died thinking that maybe Grian was never his ally, and then Jimmy and Joel abandon Grian as he lays dying because they don't trust him either. The achievement is called "What Else Did You Expect? Nobody has done it worse," very fittingly. (Not the worst ending, at least, since at least Jimmy and Joel survive together.)
I then went back to change some events to get different affinities and get all four endings. Of course I tried not killing Jimmy – and instead Jimmy tries to defend Grian from Scar, trips, and falls on his own sword *facepalm* (That does track better with Jimmy's surprising lack of hostility later.)
The ending where Scar dies thinking Grian has always been loyal to him, and then Grian still dies but at least with Jimmy and Joel's trust, is at least the nicest kind of tragedy. (Steam achievement: To Have Your Alliances, and Keep Them Too – Cheater cheater chicken dinner.)
Sidenote, almost twice as many people have the steam achievement rn for the ending where Scar trusts Grian but the other two don't, than any of the other endings ^^
Other notes: no Pearl in this route, again. The shifting alliances in the background were nicely done, especially Scott – did not expect him to try and kill Jimmy but it wasn't out of nowhere either. The surprisingly apt fishing advice throughout was also funny, and BigB just stalking everyone. And I also really liked the different conversations to tune into when walking with Scar – I was sad he didn't find his one singular cat.

Next I did route 5, You Should've Aimed for the Hand,

vague spoilers

with the Blue Sword Boys.

I started with the canon route again. This time I told Martyn that I was fine hanging out with Scar, and then agreed to commit crimes with him xD We burned down the library (and Grian collected an amethyst shard and mystic pearls, I knew they were going to come into play again later), and then Renchanting and the Desert even made a trade deal, free enchantments for free sand. Scar seemed a bit jealous of Grian's affections but he did build the tower himself! Then both Ren and Scar fell down the ravine.
The section after choosing to blame Scar for his own death felt pretty railroad-y tbh, which was a bit of a shame (especially the internal parts, I do understand that the external parts were to move the plot along.) But I finally got to visit the volcano! And go to a party, and had a nice beach conversation with BigB (…feels like I was missing something there. That, and the dancing, some weird things going on here…) and a Blue Sword Boys meeting.
Then! The next morning Ren is dead-dead!! Did not see that coming. Martyn killed Grian because he thought Grian did it – what a conclusion to come to, wow, how is Grian your first suspect, wtf. But he does believe him and Scar eventually, and then there's a whole detective quest! Gathering clues and collecting testimonies etc. etc., and thankfully getting the opportunity to become a bit closer with Scar again even if he is acting suspicious. Only for Impulse to burn Grian alive in the potion room after Grian found out it was him! Impulse makes for a good villain. (I thought for sure it was Tango for a little while because he mentioned tipped arrows after Grian only mentioned potions and I thought the knowledge he was not supposed to have was a clue, but maybe someone else told him.) And then there's an actual trial (with dramatic music throughout, great job with the tense atmosphere but did make it harder to think ^^) Ngl I didn't understand why Scar was so reluctant to reveal what he saw at the trial but at least he did in the end. Impulse was discovered as the real killer, but convinced Bdubs to break him out of jail later, only for Martyn to very dramatically throw the both of them into lava on top of the volcano. Grian, BigB, and Scar manage to escape, first into the Flower Valley and then fleeing from another trap into the cave – another new area to discover, very cool. BigB stabs Etho who followed them and then runs off – not sure where to, and I didn't see him again. (I might have missed his flower somewhere along the way?, I assume he died, too.) In the fight on the beach Scar and Grian kill Tango and Cleo, but Grian is mortally wounded. He asks Scar to take him back to the desert, planning to die in his arms watching the sunset, but Scar takes poison first so Grian flings himself off the cliff. …Scar making Grian watch him die is brutal. Maybe Scar planned to die inside while Grian bled out outside and would never know, but still.
Apparently there's only one ending to this route? Bit of a shame, I think for example a fail ending if you do not get all the clues and get convicted at the trial would have been a neat option. But it was a very cool route nonetheless! Very long. And I'm still wondering if there was something I missed, there were several moments that seemed to hint at a more, hm, mystic direction. Also, no Pearl again.

6 routes and almost twenty hours in and I'm having a ton of fun with it.
There are six more routes (and 22 more endings): some I know or am pretty sure how to access,

guesses

namely the canon route, cow heist, flower husbands, and fishing;

the other two I have no idea yet but hopefully I'll stumble upon them along the way. I look forward to it! I won't have that much time in the next week because I need to study for an exam but I do need rewards for study breaks...

pauraque

In an early 20th century Montana town, a series of men are found dead—skinned and exsanguinated. When the town's Lutheran pastor is approached by a Blackfeet man called Good Stab who says he wants the pastor to hear his confession, he thinks he knows what's coming. But Good Stab's story is much longer and stranger than the pastor expects. It starts in the early days of white encroachment, when Good Stab encountered a fanged monster he calls the Cat Man, who made Good Stab like him: a blood-drinker who is burned by the sun and cannot die. At first the pastor doesn't believe him, but as Good Stab promises... he will.

This was an intense read, both very gory and very smart. The setup is obviously riffing on Interview with the Vampire, but the story is taken in fresh directions. Similarly to Jones' earlier book The Only Good Indians, it combines elements of creature horror and revenge thriller to great effect, as Good Stab wrestles with his own transgressions and what he's become, while using his unwanted powers to resist white violence. A lot of the horror is in the history—vampires aren't real, but American genocide is, and I can't think of many other books that made me feel that as viscerally as this one did. It expertly interweaves vampire mythology with Indigenous lore, using the premise to cut right to the heart of the struggle for identity when so much has been taken away. Good Stab can't go back to his old life because he's a vampire, and also because his old life, the way of life he knew as a child, no longer exists.

The writing is brilliant and both of the focal characters' voices are incredibly strong, distinctive, and feel authentic to the time period, even when it isn't comfortable to read. Arthur Beaucarne, the pastor, is an intelligent man but not a good man, and his stereotyped perspective on Good Stab is shaped both by his culture and by his own selfishness, a theme that's cleverly drawn out all the way to its horrific end. The contrast when we flip to Good Stab's narration is like going from black-and-white to color, showing the vivid inner complexity that Beaucarne can't (won't) see.

Though I found the main part of the narrative riveting, there's also a contemporary framing story of Beaucarne's descendant finding and reading his journal, which I thought didn't work as well. I found this character difficult to relate to and her choices frustratingly dumb, and the way her story wrapped up blunted the power of the book a little for me. I think I get what the purpose of the framing story is supposed to be—by bringing the narrative into the present, it emphasizes that Indigenous resistance is not only in the past, it's still with us today. But I think the main story already makes that point by leveraging the reader's real world knowledge, and nothing more was really needed. That said, the framing story is a small percentage of the total page count, and I'd still recommend the book on the strength of the main narrative.

kradeelav

scrunching my nose at proton's god-awful latest moves, sigh.

my feedback I just sent (posting here in case if it's useful as a template / a reminder to bug 'em):

( Read more... )

larissa

hello, here's a post. it is ~~mostly~~ entirely a post about final fantasy xiv. sorry.

i have been very productive lately, if "productive" here means "playing a lot of final fantasy xiv." that said, i've managed to finish some long-term goals in the game, which i am pleased about. i made a list some months ago of things i wanted to complete before the new expansion came out; the last few months before an expansion launch are a good time to complete long-term goals and grinds, since there's not much new content to do.

as such, i have dutifully been plugging away at cosmic exploration, and finally got the mount for it this past week:

i haven't gotten golds on all the missions, and i don't think i'm going to do so before the new expansion; this is mostly laziness at work (but also it's a nightmare to input crafting macros on ps5 compared to on a pc). still, i really wanted to complete the point grind on content, in part because it took me six years to finish the diadem/firmament grind. i just didn't want this hanging over my head :|

the other grind i just completed is the dawntrail hunt grind!

this mount requires killing 1000 DT S ranks and 2000 DT A ranks. for those who don't play the game, S ranks are special monsters who have specific spawn conditions and take up to 72 hours to respawn once killed. A ranks automatically respawn every ~6 hours. so the A rank grind is doable, but tedious; the S rank grind takes real focus. i have been working on this for the entire expansion, and am glad to finally be done... just in time for the new expansion. (also, funny enough, as i was writing this paragraph a DT s rank spawned on my world... i guess i'll go kill it.)

aside from these grinds, i've been trying to catch up on my glamour backlog. final fantasy xiv is ultimately a very fancy dress-up game, and i am about 8-10 months behind on posting all of my new outfits to eorzea collection. i play a lot of alts for purposes of dress-up, and for a lot of the past few months i've been working on one character in particular who had, like, 20 outfits that needed posting... so i'm chipping away at that.

the other thing is that i've been replaying shadowbringers, my favorite expansion, on my bunboy alt. i haven't replayed shb in a few years now, and i've really been enjoying watching all the cutscenes again. i can't wait to get to the patches; unlike everything else in the game, i have never replayed the shb patches since they came out, so i don't remember them as well as i otherwise might. i just finished mt. gulg and got to innocence last night, so bunboy is about to go through it...

nanowrimo might be dead, but i'm hoping that i can use the energy of November Writing to work on my endwalker fic. this fic has been hanging over my head for a few years now; i wrote 80% of it for nanowrimo 2023, and it's been languishing since as i try to revise it. but i really want to get it done so i can start posting it and move on with my life, so that's the upcoming goal... wish me luck, i need it.

i think that's all for now. maybe next time i'll have an update about something else... but somehow i doubt it.

Current Music: kiss o' kill — Ayumi Hamasaki

james_davis_nicoll

The quoted material below is quoted material.

Kitchener's voter turnout:

2026 22%;

2022 20%;

2018 27%;

2014 30%

2010 28%

Why the big drop between 2018 & 2022?

IDK but city staff stopped mailing individual voter cards & began batching per address, sending to "random" people in 2022.

How many didn't get their voter info?

Can they track voter turn out by if they their voter cards were addressed to them or not?

So, there will likely be articles about voter apathy, but what about candidate apathy?

~30 candidates were on my ballot.

I heard from 2.

Both were re-elected.

As to the others, I saw no leaflets, no Facebook or Instagram ads. No calls. No door drops.

Not all candidates replied to media surveys.

Not all had websites or social media accts. Some only had a Facebook account

Very few lawn signs.

I wonder if they ascribed to the visualization mindset (just imagine being successful and you will be successful without actually doing anything).

I know there's a big push to have voters educate themselves about the issues and candidates, but if a candidate can't be arsed to let me know they're running, I figure they can't be arsed to work for their constituents.

florianschild posting in

dw_community_promo

A banner with the text Snowflake Challenge over an image of a mug of hot chocolate sitting on a cozy blanket and a snowflake shaped gingerbread cookie

The Snowflake Challenge will be back in 2027! We hope you are able to join us for a month of community and prompting to ring in the New Year and get us through an otherwise dark and chilly season (for those of us in the northern hemisphere at least).

If you've never participated before, the Snowflake Challenge is a community where we post 15 prompts throughout the month of January. You write your own response in your journal and link to it in a comment on the prompt post. People are encouraged to visit each other's journals and interact, sparking conversations and celebrating the unique and wonderful people who hang out here.

Join

snowflake_challenge now to keep up with news and see the prompt posts when they go live. We will be sharing some introductory posts in late December and then the prompting begins on January 1st, 2027. We are also looking for additional moderators, if you're interested in getting more involved.

wolfshark posting in

iddyiddybangbang

Title: a curved piece of metal and the hand of a lover
Author: sharkie335
Fandom: Old Guard
Word Count: 6,777
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: None
Summary: Joe desperately needs to get taken out of his head. Nicky knows just what he can do to help.
a curved piece of metal and the hand of a lover

sonofgodzilla

Everything is bad right now, so here's a post about things when they weren't so bad!

( Meitantei Pretty Cure! )

( Puella Magi Madoka☆Magica )

( Himitsu no AiPri )

( Onegai AiPri )

( Go! Princess Pretty Cure )

( Aikatsu! )

( Sakura Wars )

( Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight )

( Ame Nochi Hare Onna )

This entry took forever to write! There are still a few things I haven't mentioned but I think covering the Japan side of things is enough for now! Hopefully you will forgive me!

Current Mood: restless
Current Location: somewhere
Current Music: Leviathan - Red Sands

james_davis_nicoll

An assortment of speculative fiction stories--plus commentary!--from Walter Jon Williams.

The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories by Walter Jon Williams

mekare posting in

drawesome

Title: Sam & Dottie
Artist: mekare
Rating: G
Fandom: Marvel
Characters/Pairings: Sam Wilson, Dottie Underwood
Content Notes: Still ink and markers, no-erase approach

I decided to leave the prompts be for now because my rewatch of Agent Carter and first watch of the Falcon and Winter Soldier demanded to draw some characters.

Clicky previews:

smiling Dottie Underwood with a tubular device

flo_nelja posting in

iddyiddybangbang

Title: In Search of Lost Time
Author: Nelja
Fandom: Bungou Stray Dogs
Word Count: 39,490
Rating: M
Warnings: Non-explicit sex, vaguely implied underage sex, vaguely references child abuse, torture, death/suicide of secondary characters.
Summary: Atsushi accidentally time travels to a time when Dazai was still in the mafia. Time-travel fix-it of sorts.

Link to AO3: In Search of Lost Time

leecetheartist posting in

drawesome

Title: Drawtober 27th - Gravestone

Artist:

leecetheartist

Rating: G

Fandom: n/a

Characters/Pairings: n/a

Content Notes:

Welcome to Drawtober the 27th. Today for me, the prompt is Gravestone. I've chosen the more punny side of the street, so here we have a Grave Stone.

Aha ha ha. Anyway I drew this using

a Water Brush, Kakimori Steel Nib and the Taranishi Guitar Glass Nib. Just two inks today, the Diamine Tundra and the Molten Basalt.

The Molten Basalt was a bit of a surprise, because it's a standard ink but you get really quite nice reddish sheen with it which looks quite cool against its dark blue.

ysabetwordsmith

This is an advance announcement for the Tuesday, November 3, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl. This time the theme will be "Intentional Community." I'll be soliciting ideas for communards, neighbors, communitarians, hippies, Native American tribes, caregivers, first responders, clergy, outreach workers, artists, writers, polyfamilies, ethicists, activists, volunteers, handyworkers, repairmen, teachers, parents, comares, immigrants, superheroes, supervillains; from Daughters of the Apocalypse: armeys, carneys, muneys, naveys; other communal people, starting a community, living together, moving into a new home, welcoming the neighbors, lending a hand, responding to emergencies, volunteering, making donations, supporting people in hard times, learning to trust others, offering crash space, helping someone move, recommoning (creating space where people can share and tend land in relationship), placemaking, planting trees, creating intimacy, making friends, getting to know each other, cooking together, discovering things, improvising, adapting, cooperating, bartering, sharing, fixing what's broke, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, intentional communities, communes, artist colonies, cohousing, sharehouses, boarding houses, common houses, planned communities, other polyhomes, Native American reservations, Triton Teen Centers, the Peace Store, food coops and other cooperatives, amenity floors, charities, homeless shelters, clothing banks, food pantries, soup kitchens, sobering centers, community clinics, mentor circles, support groups, churches, gay bars, feminist bookstores, social justice departments in schools, clubs, inclusive workplaces, Thalassia, the Maldives, the Lacuna, Rutledge, Emerald Mountain Glen (a hippie commune near Rutledge), LunaRest (an art colony near Rutledge), Ville de Roses (a French intentional village near Rutledge), Homemade Families classes, community gardens, other communal hangouts, intentional neighboring, interfaith work, diversity, inclusivity, housewarming parties, First Year clubs for people new in town, participatory decision-making, altruism, family dynamics, alternative family structures, partnerships not based on sex/romance, emotional closeness, nonsexual intimacies, first contact, interspecies relationships, trial and error, trust issues, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.

Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One has most people living in tight-knit communities because they are in space.

Arts and Crafts America includes the Draft Dawgs Veteran Shelter.

The Bear Tunnels features historic tribal villages.

The Blueshift Troupers travel the galaxy helping colonies solve problems.

A Conflagration of Dragons leaves people to rely on each other or die.

Coracle Shores features people fleeing climate change into a faeryland of small villages.

Daughters of the Apocalypse relies a lot on mutual aid for survival. Armeys are military bands. Carneys travel together in caravans. Muneys share a commune. Naveys are nautical bands.
* Lazarus Lake
* Nadie's family farm
* Ninovan from "The Trail of Hope"
* Rainbow Hills

Fiorenza the Wisewoman lives in a small, tight-knit village.

Frankenstein's Family has diverse subgroups interacting to help each other.

Hart's Farm is a free love commune.

The Moon Door features a women's chronic pain support group, which involves a lot of intentional neighboring.

One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis involves a close religious community.

Peculiar Obligations includes Quaker communities and pirate islands.

Polychrome Heroics has ordinary humans, supernaries, blue-plate specials, superheroes, supervillains, primal and animal soups all trying to get along together. Relevant threads include Antimatter and Stalwart Stan, the Big One, Cuoio and Chiara, Iron Horses, Officer Pink, Pain's Gray, Rutledge, Shiv , and Trichromatic Attachments. I encourage readers to prompt for any of the large casts and complex settings that I have already developed, such as:
* the bohemian folks at Hanson Hall in Omaha, Nebraska
* Prairie Meadows Cohousing Community and Mayfield Meadows Farm near Omaha, Nebraska
* Fertile Acres Farm just outside of Omaha, Nebraska (introduced in "So Monumental and Still")
* Woolgather Hill near Omaha, Nebraska
* the Mori no Tami and their allies at Mori no Mura in Humboldt County, California
* the hippies of Emerald Mountain Glen in Vermont
* the people and place of Fire Mountain Farm in Vermont
* Lazy Maple Lane near Rutledge, Vermont
* Bumbleberry Acres, a farm just southwest of Rutledge, Vermont (introduced in "Do Something Different Inside")
* the rescued sexbots in Thalassia
* the rescued primals now at the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana
* Havre Hobby Habitat in Montana
* the Withering Heights LARP in Colorado
* the Solace polycule in Atlanta, Georgia
* Nicholson family farm near Bluehill, Missouri
* the cohousing and polycule in Portland, Oregon
* the various polycules from "A Celebration and a Consolation" out east

Quixotic Ideas is set in a world with plenty of magic and a positive tone, where people often help each other and solve challenges peacefully.

Schrodinger's Heroes save the world from alternate dimensions, and they take care of each other.

Walking the Beat is lesbian romance with a lot of intentional neighboring.

Or you can ask for something new.

For boosting the signal, you can reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

If you're interested, mark the date on your calendar, and please hold actual prompts until the "Poetry Fishbowl Open" post next week. (If you're not available that day, or you live in a time zone that makes it hard to reach me, you can leave advance prompts. I am now.) Meanwhile, if you want to help with promotion, please feel free to link back here or repost this on your blog.

( New to the fishbowl? Read all about it! )

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

I mentioned lembas and its construction with a friend, who asked for a more detailed analysis. Well, I've been doing that since I could talk, so this happened...

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Today we enjoyed two full moon activities.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

cornerofmadness

Walter Koenig passed today, leaving only George and Bill. If I'm honest, I'm scared to log into FB these days because one voice actor from my child hood after another have passed. I'm pretty sure we're up to a dozen. But yeah, I'm sad about Chekov. The last two will be gutting (especially Sulu was my second favorite on original Trek. Spock is my forever husband)

Today was weird. First it was a set up for tomorrow's work drama (yay) and then half my lunch hour went to a student who has gotten by by looks and charisma but otherwise is a bit mediocre. He wants to go to dental school and wanted help preparing (he's 2 years too late. he needed to get serious before halfway thru his junior year) but at least he's here now. And I learned something from him, a small school in KY now has a dental school. I'm shocked. I reached out for info since I have a lot of people wanting dental school. And the scary part is they take TEN students. Okay so we don't have a dentist shortage. We're manufacturing one. Cool.

I had to call the landlord. Plumber can come tomorrow when I'm not here. UGH. I hate having people in my hovel without me there. And I absolutely cannot take off work tomorrow. I have to meet with two deans (cue work drama) He tried calling someone else, the older woman who takes care of things here (probably hoping she could get her nephew here to do it). She sends the woman I share a wall with. I open the door to an 84 year old with a plunger. I'm here to help!

Evelyn, I HAVE a plunger. It didn't work.

She looks at me and says I knew you had to. You're like me, single women. We have to learn to do things for ourselves.

Amen, sister.

Also is throwing a giant blanket over the pile of shit you don't have time to sort and move counts as cleaning, right? I did have to clean the bathroom in a whirlwind. BTW that 22 year old cheap ass plastic liner shower is SO fucking beat up, I can't get it clean. Tilex does nothing and soft scrubs scratches it up more. Looks gross. (and has done for years now)

I finished my lighthouse horror. I'm not sure I love it but it's done. And hey look, here's another horror zine interview with me for the latest anthology I'm in. you can read it here.

It's Music Monday and we're doing the alphabet. I'm choosing new songs from the last couple of years but you do you if you want to play. The letter this week is M. I have a few. One I love (Sombr) and the other two aren't bad.

( listen under here )

Current Mood: aggravated
Current Music: Star Trek Voyager

settiai

Because the universe hates me, and I very much need a new bank, I'm dealing with my account being temporarily locked. Again. Due to someone getting access to my debit card number. Again. (Yeah. It's been a Monday.)

Most of my end-of-month bills are already covered, but I have about $90 worth that are still due plus my storage unit. I'm trying to raise enough to cover at least the non-storage unit bills, as I can then use my debit cards tied to CashApp/PayPal/Venmo to pay those if I can sell just a couple of things from this list.

Here's what I have available if anyone's interested:

Board/Card Games

Clue (Mighty Nein edition) (example on Amazon)
Monopoly (Crazy for Cats edition) (example on Walmart)
Queen by Midnight (example on Amazon)

Books/Comics/Graphic Novels

The Lost Art of E.T. Reed: Prehistoric Peeps (example on Amazon)

Dice Tray

Wyrmwood Gaming Purpleheart Dice Tray (example on WyrmwoodGaming.com - purpleheart is second from the last)

Nintendo Switch Games

Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! (example on Amazon)
Spyro Reignited Trilogy (example on Amazon)
TemTem (example on Amazon)

TTRPGs

Daggerheart Core Set (example on Amazon)

If you're not interested but know someone who might be, please point them my way.

For payment, I have CashApp ($Settiai), PayPal, and Venmo. I'd normally use Zelle as well, but it's tied directly to my checking account so if possible I'd really like to try to use one of the other three so I can access funds while waiting for everything with my bank to get cleared up.

Current Mood: hopeful

Profile

Allekha

October 2026

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Page Summary

ysabetwordsmith - Conservation
sovay - When you breach the dawn, you look back in time
ysabetwordsmith - Birdfeeding
schneefink - Heartfall - a Tale in Three Lives
pauraque - The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones (2025)
kradeelav - (no subject)
larissa - there's nothing spooky about this post.
james_davis_nicoll - As pointed out to me by a local pundit
florianschild in dw_community_promo - Snowflake Challenge
wolfshark in iddyiddybangbang - a curved piece of metal and the hand of a lover (Old Guard)
sonofgodzilla - Monthly Magical Girl Media: July - October
james_davis_nicoll - The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories by Walter Jon Williams
mekare in drawesome - Drawtober
flo_nelja in iddyiddybangbang - In Search of Lost Time (Bungou Stray Dogs)
leecetheartist in drawesome - Drawtober 27th
ysabetwordsmith - Poetry Fishbowl on Tuesday, November 3
ysabetwordsmith - Food
ysabetwordsmith - Today's Adventures
cornerofmadness - Say hello to the rest of the crew, Pavel
settiai - Virtual Garage Sale

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Style: Green for Basic Boxes by branchandroot

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Page generated Oct. 27th, 2026 07:22 pm

A Song in the Trees

Network

Conservation

When you breach the dawn, you look back in time

Birdfeeding

Heartfall - a Tale in Three Lives

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones (2025)

(no subject)

there's nothing spooky about this post.

As pointed out to me by a local pundit

Snowflake Challenge

a curved piece of metal and the hand of a lover (Old Guard)

Monthly Magical Girl Media: July - October

The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories by Walter Jon Williams

Drawtober

In Search of Lost Time (Bungou Stray Dogs)

Drawtober 27th

Poetry Fishbowl on Tuesday, November 3

Food

Today's Adventures

Say hello to the rest of the crew, Pavel

Virtual Garage Sale

Profile

October 2026

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