Desolation

May. 23rd, 2026 07:43 pm
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Posted by AllieTheBard

by

The room he is going to die in is cold, hollow, and metal, not too small, almost the size of his entire apartment on Preservation but totally empty. The world outside is freezing; inside, merely cold, but enough to make the augments feel metal beneath his skin, drawn tighter over the foreign parts, almost painful, like his blood is not sufficient to keep them warm anymore.

The good news, dying will probably not take too long. The bad news is everything else, really.

Gurathin finds himself the target of some very slow, cold vengeance.

Words: 579, Chapters: 1/14, Language: English

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Posted by Murderboy (1happydaiz)

by

In which Murderbot reviews security footage, successfully avoids one of two uncomfortable conversations, and has a breakthrough in [redacted].

This story takes place immediately after the last scene of Platform Decay.

Words: 9, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

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Posted by Mango_Mush

by

Mensah had everything someone could reasonably want, two loving understanding spouses, seven darling and bright children, a small tenacious and skilled soulfamily. Yet, something is missing. Someone.

//day 22, Characters React to Canon

Words: 520, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Series: Part 19 of retro writing may

sovay: (Otachi: Pacific Rim)
[personal profile] sovay
For MerMay, [personal profile] leecetheartist did me the great honor of using me as a model for a glittering mermaid.



After the hectic bloom of mid-week summer, the weather has crashed back into overcast, rain, and intermittently raw chill. The Bradford pear directly in front of my office window has been hedged around with sawhorses declaring it a threat to public safety and scheduled for removal next week. I was photographing its delicately clustering blossoms just a few weeks ago. It's full of green leaves. It hasn't been antisocial to me. [personal profile] asakiyume sent me Thao & The Get Down Stay Down's "Temple" (2020).
neonvincent: From an icon made by the artists themselves (Bang)
[personal profile] neonvincent

Hornytown Chutzpah, by Andrew Hiller

May. 23rd, 2026 01:00 pm
mrissa: (Default)
[personal profile] mrissa
 

Review copy provided by the author, who's a convention/online buddy.

Sometime in your life, you've probably met a smartass who always has a joke for every occasion--and then gradually realized that this person was genuinely kind. That they were not punching down, and mostly they weren't punching at all, instead focusing their jokes on wry incongruity or situation rather than mocking individual people. That there was a core of tenderness behind the wisecracking. If you know the kind of person I mean (let's be real: several of you are the kind of person I mean), you will understand Sol, the narrator of Hornytown Chutzpah pretty much right away. He's not just called Solomon the Wise Guy for a wry historical reference. He's definitely a wiseacre--but not as dumb as he might joke that he is. He's coping using a very specific kind humor--in this case, the instantiation of it that shows up in a lot of American Jewish culture.

And boy, does Sol have a lot to cope with. I knew I was hooked all the way when the guy who is enough of a smartass to earn the nickname Solomon the Wise Guy can be brought to action with a reference to tikun olam. Look, friends, I'm not Jewish, but I know that one. A call to repair the world? those are lyrics everyone can enjoy. And having it be a touchstone, a point that rings our hero like a bell? I'm in, I'm all in.

The Hornytown of the title is an incursion of Hell into the Washington, DC, area, complete with hellfire around it and sin-eating demons within (and sometimes without). It's run by a figure that will look unfortunately familiar, but rest assured that our hero is all-in against him. I was frankly worried by the title, because my interest in "city of people who would like to have a lot of sex" is pretty minimal, but it's not that kind of Hornytown at all. Whew. Is there chutzpah, though? There is chutzpah to spare. Which is a good thing, because the literally hellish nature of the problems Sol faces will require it.

(no subject)

May. 23rd, 2026 05:10 pm
fox_in_me: fox.in.me (Default)
[personal profile] fox_in_me posting in [community profile] add_a_writer
Name: Mr. Fox


Age: 30-something


I mostly post about:
Fragments of life, memory, war, and the strange feeling of trying to remain human while the world changes around you.

I write honest personal entries about life in Ukraine during wartime not as news reports, but as lived emotions. Memories of peaceful years, quiet evenings by the sea, conversations, fears, hope, exhaustion, music on empty streets, radio signals in the night, thoughts about humanity, loneliness, survival, and the fragile beauty that still somehow exists beside all of this.

Before the war, my life was deeply connected with the sea, travel, ships, people from different countries, and long roads between places. Some of those stories still appear here too.

This journal was reborn after a long silence. Every entry is published both in English and in its original language. I also share my own photography : small visual fragments of different periods of my life, usually connected to the mood of a specific post.

If I had to describe this journal simply:
these are probably letters from a person trying not to lose himself completely.

My hobbies are:
Photography (almost professionally), lomography and everyday street photography, music (acoustic, post-rock, instrumental covers, atmospheric music), psychology, radio communication, history, classical literature, travel, long night walks, and collecting strange little moments that most people pass by without noticing.

I love meaningful conversations and people who still know how to feel deeply.

My fandoms are:
Not really fandom-oriented.

But I love thoughtful writing, old internet culture, personal blogs, atmospheric media, documentaries, literature, music, photography, and people with their own inner worlds.

I'm looking to meet people who:
...feel something when they read my words.

Kind people. Thoughtful people. Quiet observers. Those who still value sincerity on the internet.

You absolutely do not have to share my experiences to understand the emotions behind them.

I’m open to meeting people from different countries and backgrounds — as long as empathy still exists in them.

(And yes, one exception remains:
I do not welcome people who support or justify the war.)

My posting schedule tends to be:
Usually several times a week.
Sometimes more often when thoughts become too loud to keep inside.

When I add people, my dealbreakers are:
Cruelty, dehumanization, propaganda, or people who completely lost the ability to empathize with others.

Otherwise, I prefer discovering people naturally through conversation and writing.

Before adding me, you should know:
I’m Ukrainian.
And I think that inevitably shapes many things I write now.

Still, this journal is not built around politics alone.
It is about trying to preserve memory, humanity, warmth, irony, curiosity, and the ability to notice beauty even during difficult times.

Welcome aboard.
These are still my messages in a bottle.

little libraries

May. 23rd, 2026 09:00 am
asakiyume: (Em reading)
[personal profile] asakiyume
I came across this great story elsewhere on the interwebs, an 89-year-old guy in Puchong (near Kuala Lumpur), Malaysia, who's set up reading stations in a public park. He also has helped libraries in Thailand and China. (Article here.)

There's also a short video linked in the article, which is great, because you can hear Mr Lee in his own words:

"I think Malaysia should follow China, where every village has one library. That's good."**



I was thinking of Little Free Libraries in this country. I think they're a great idea in places where there's foot traffic, where many different people might stop by and look over the books. I sometimes see them, though, in places where I wonder what traffic they'll get. On winding country roads with rather large houses situated far back from the roads on ample, gracious properties. And at the roadside, a little free library. But who's going to be walking by? I guess maybe the neighbors? But there's just not the same thickness of people.

Also, this guy thinks of himself as lending the books, not giving them away. He doesn't mind if you keep the book a month, six months, a year, and in fact he probably isn't going to be upset if a book doesn't come back, but the *idea* is that it will come back--and that means that the borrower has more connection with the site, and there's a sense of mutual responsibility. Plus the story says that people like to come and chat with him.

There can be more than one pattern! Little Free Libraries have a kind of spy-drop-box vibe. Ships passing in the night, taking books, maybe leaving books. That can be fun too. But I like the actual social interaction involved in what Mr Lee is doing.

Do any of you oversee a Little Free Library or frequent one (or more than one)? What's your experience been?


**Not exactly his words, which are Malaysian-English word order and has some special words I didn't catch, but that's how they're glossed and mainly what he said.
rolanni: (Default)
[personal profile] rolanni

Saturday -- sunny and cool.

I have finally found the Sekrit to making an enjoyable (as opposed to merely an OK) cup of Harney's Chocolate Chai Supreme, which is! (1) Realize that there is more than one cup, but less than two cups of leaves left, and just brew it all, leaving the cup 1/3(ish) empty. (2) After tea is brewed, fill the rest of the cup with milk, and dump in the last spoonful of Ghirardelli's Cocoa Powder. The result is something like spicy hot chocolate, and really quite tasty. That said, I will not be re-upping my supply of chocolate chai.

Today, as previously reported, I'll be finishing my packing, making sure the laptop is functional, and flipping a coin to see if I'll be taking one of my crazy keyboards. Speaking of over-packing. I'm really bad on a flat keyboard anymore, but! I don't intend this to be a Writing Retreat. On the Gripping Hand, if I'm suddenly Struck by Inspiration (which is almost guaranteed to happen exactly when one is intending Not To Write), I want to be able to type, not flail. I think I have Steve's Special Flipping Coin around here somewhere...

Also today, I need to swap out the cat fountains (not the cat boxes; I did that earlier in the week), and decide how to adjust station air for the cats. It's going to be in the mid-50s a couple days, but what worries me more is the warmer days in the middle of the week. I believe I'll be setting station air at 72 COOL, which should keep things comfortable for them. They really don't get the Go Downstairs strategy when the upper house gets too warm, and they have plenty of blankets, not to mention each other, to snuggle with if it's cool.

I think it fair to say that from this point on, Radio Rolanni in all of its iterations will be transmitting intermittently, and possibly not at all. The conference areas will be open, and the kitchens stocked with snacks. Feel free to meet and talk among yourselves, or bring games and crafts.  We'll be back on the air next weekend.

I append a picture of The Long Back Yard, with lilacs and those low-growing purple weeds that the bees like so much. I'm pleased to see such a lush patch of those.


rydra_wong: Lee Miller photo showing two women wearing metal fire masks in England during WWII. (Default)
[personal profile] rydra_wong
https://www.transsolidarityalliance.com/mass-lobby-2026

As explained at: https://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/contact-an-mp-or-lord/lobbying-parliament/

A mass lobby is when a large number of people contact their MPs and members of the Lords in advance and arrange to meet with them at Parliament all on the same day.

Trans+ Solidarity Alliance are one of the groups who've been absolutely kicking ass in the last year.

They also now have a crowdfunder if anyone wants to donate:

https://www.zeffy.com/en-GB/donation-form/fund-the-work-of-the-trans-solidarity-alliance

Fic Challenge (Prompt Style)

May. 23rd, 2026 12:34 am
senmut: Lacroix and Janette together (Forever Knight: Lacroix Janette)
[personal profile] senmut
[community profile] fkficfest is running again this year!

details here with the pool of prompts.

I've played off and on since 2010, it looks like. Here's what I've done over the years.

2010: Trials of Conscience
2011: To Not Be Alone
2015: Family from the Ashes

2016: Encounter in the Hills
2017: Flicker of a Memory
2018: A Night's Work

2021: Difficult Lesson
2021: Crisis Response
2021: What He Is

2022: Any Regrets?
2024: To Say Goodbye

stories nobody has told

May. 23rd, 2026 12:21 am
twistedchick: watercolor painting of coffee cup on wood table (Default)
[personal profile] twistedchick
I have just finished rewatching Captain America: The Winter Soldier, for the umpteenth time, but this time I was mapping out where things were toward the end, when enormous ships are falling out of the sky into the Potomac River at a place where it is not really wide enough for one of those ships.

They never think about the side effects in disaster movies, do they? For this, they tripled the width of the Potomac at a place where it is a few hundred feet wide, that's all. All that hot metal hitting the water would really annoy the rockfish and the Maryland terrapins. The rockfish might forget but the terrapins will remember.

Let's think of the volume of river water displaced by those enormous ships hitting the river. Where they have them hitting, the waves will wash up over the patios and parking lots into the Watergate, into the Kennedy Center (or what's left of it these days), and into Lower Georgetown's underground parking garages, where it will float a lot of cars. We went through something like this before, back in the 90s, when there was so much rain that it washed cars into the river from above-ground parking lots and floated everything in the underground garages. I'm not sure how the insurance adjusters would account for this flood on their paperwork -- "act of superheroes"?

I'm assuming that the resizing of the river also moved Roosevelt Island half a mile or more downstream, so that it would be there when Bucky pulls Steve out onto the shore (in the only place in that area that has a shore with grass at that angle compared to the water). Upstream, the south side of the river is a rock wall with mansions on top of it for several miles heading upstream -- there used to be several Kennedy places up there -- and on the other side there's a narrow area and then the Washington and Old Dominion Canal, which is a recreation area.

I'm also going to ignore the other fallout, when bits of the Shield building and more pieces of airships drop onto the buildings and streets of Rosslyn, VA, one of the most expensive areas of real estate in the country. Or maybe they'd be drifting a little further apart -- how far apart were those three ships,anyway? That would put one of them over the Mall and another over either Arlington Cemetery or Washington National Airport (I refuse to call it Reagan Airport; he didn't deserve one.)

Anyway, I don't think there's a lot of fanfic that deals with the aftereffects of the actions of superheroes. Just a thought or two for anyone who may need a bit of inspiration...

friday 5; age

May. 22nd, 2026 11:59 pm
archersangel: the first of the flock (dreamsheep)
[personal profile] archersangel
1. How long to you hope to live (to what age)?
i don't know.

2. Based on the lifespans of your grandparents and/or great-grandparents, what is your realistic lifespan?
most of my grandparents lived to their late 70s/early 80s. not sure about my great-grandparents.

3. What is the average lifespan of people in your country?
i think for men it's 76 & for women it's 81.

4. At what age do you plan to retire (or did you retire)?
65. probably.

5. What are your plans for retirement?
to travel. otherwise do as little as possible.

other answers here at [community profile] thefridayfive

Aomori 1

May. 23rd, 2026 11:57 am
mindstalk: (Default)
[personal profile] mindstalk
  • Bed was more comfortable for sleeping than I feared. OTOH it's not good for using a laptop cross-legged; I'm best off just sitting on the floor with a table. The host ruled out providing a floor chair or something.

  • Civil twilight starts at 3:40 AM, in the northeast; the Venetian blinds on my north-facing windows do jack. I managed to get some more sleep between 5 and 8, I think, then got up, figuring I should keep good habits as I'll need to check out at 10 Monday. Then lots of noise happened at 9, so good call.

  • Back to the supermarket, 6 minute walk for me, but kind of unpleasant. Partly not many plants lining the way, like the potted plants I'd see in Osaka. Partly the cars: even on these residential streets, they seem to go relatively fast, like Taiwanese drivers. Sapporo may have been a very car city, but it had lots of sidewalk, and still-tame drivers.

  • Though on the way home, I took a different route, and ended up avoiding much traffic at all. Woo, annoying residential streets.

Read more... )

snickfic: (Oasis walkon)
[personal profile] snickfic
+ Liam and Noel have been going to football matches together, along with various combinations of Liam's kids Gene and Lennon and Noel's kids Anais, Sonny, and Donovan. Liam and Noel's first time hanging out in public since like 2008?? Some great photos and short clips, but this one from last weekend has got to be the best. The full belly laugh, head thrown back! Noel trying ever more insistently to get his attention again because he wasn't finished yet!!

Bonus: Anais thinks her uncle is funny. ;__;

+ Speaking of the kids, here's how the comeback is going from their perspective:
cut for image )

+ The reunion tour documentary has an official release date! And it's going to have JOINT INTERVIEWS, YOU GUYS. Liam and Noel in the same room, answering questions. Can you even fucking imagine. They haven't done one of those since 2005. Noel is going to laugh at all Liam's jokes and Liam is going to be SO SMUG about it. I'm going to see this IN A THEATER and I am going to dieeeeee.

+ Of course twitter asked Liam about this, and his response was:
People asking me what the documentary's like it's a ROMANTIC COMEDY with a bit of ROCK N ROLL

He later said that the romance would be between "us and the fans," but we know the truth. :')

+ And finally, have this old clip I found of Liam at a gig singing I waited for a thousand years for you to come / and take me from behind.

Would it be so bad?

May. 22nd, 2026 11:35 pm
[syndicated profile] murderbot_ao3_feed

Posted by Eltanin_star

by

Humans are annoying, messy, loud, rude but maybe this one isn’t so bad, the doctor was definitely different from any other human it’s ever met, he is definitely annoying sometimes but he doesn’t bring pain like humans do.

Words: 2734, Chapters: 1/5, Language: English

meme time!

May. 22nd, 2026 07:05 pm
senmut: Dejah Thoris holding a sword pointed down, arms crossed in front of her face (Barsoom: Dejah Thoris with Sword)
[personal profile] senmut
Comment with the name of a woman character (in any show, movie, book, comic, etc that you think I'm familiar with) and I'll tell you one thing I love about her. In return, you can do the same in your journal (if you like!).

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