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Fannish options & enthusiasms | July 2025

Here are some recent fannish things I've happened to see and would like to share!

Spotlight: Volume 1 of the fantasy webcomic Aurora by Red of Overly Sarcastic Productions comes out from Andrews McMeel on July 29. New to you? A band of diverse misfits thrown together by circumstances try to save first themselves, then each other, and eventually their magic-ridden world, journeying much like a D&D party, interacting much like a superhero team, with many of the self-sacrifice, power of friendship, and metaphysical/moral themes I love. Already enjoy? Pre-orders can get an exclusive sticker sheet. Check it out.

Ficathons, fests & communities

Create & engage
- fkficfest, the annual Forever Knight fanfic challenge, finished revealing its stories in June.
- sunshine_revival, a summertime sibling of snowflake_challenge, is in progress. No commitments, no deadlines, yes friending-meme. Let's engage with each other here on DW!
- julybreakbingopresents, a month-long bingo-prompt fanwork game, has sign-ups through July 7.
- fallingforyoufallexchange is a fanwork exchange celebrating falling in love in fall. Nominations through July 21; sign-ups through July 31; due September 15.
- no_true_pair, a "Mad Libs"-style challenge community, is hosting a "No True Crossover" mini-event through July (with amnesty thereafter).
- beauty-beast-week is an open celebration of Disney's Beauty and the Beast with posting August 18-24.
- trope_of_the_month's July theme is an amnesty (create works for any previous theme).
- pinchhits is a forum for pinch-hits in exchanges. For example, fandom5k is seeking pinch hitters.
- whenisitdue tracks many more events than I note here!
Enjoy & share
- fancake (themed fanfic recs); July theme: "working together"
- gensplosion (gen fanfic recs)
- het_reccers (m/f fanfic recs)
- fanart_recs (fanart recs)
- recthething (fanwork recs)

Sidelight: I've preordered tickets for Superman (2025) and The Fantastic Four (2025), fingers crossed for both (be good be good be good), but I also want to support original and non-genre films. I looked for what to see this holiday weekend and found... nothing? I hadn't known what The Life of Chuck might possibly be until its run ended, only that it had famous people in it, so I unfortunately missed that. I'm not into horror. The reviews of Pixar's latest are poor. Are there no dramas, historicals, comedies? Just the Nth Jurassic Park and Mission Impossible sequels? To be fair, there is a men-race-cars movie. Still. Eeek, Hollywood.

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venting

Venting

A former co-worker called me last week. We were...work friends. We never socialized outside of work.
She left the company before I did and moved to Ohio; she'd call me occasionally to talk.

She's one of those people who 1) thinks she's knows everything and 2) makes everything about her. The last time she called before this most recent one was probably 18 months ago. She asked so I was trying to tell her about everything I was going through with my father. Her response was to tell me not to trust doctors and do some woo-woo shit. Then going on about how terrible her life is. Then she started in on how she wanted to move back up here and she needed people to help her.

This time I told her dad had passed. She started with how she knows how hard that is. Her mother died (so did mine). Her brother died (so did mine). Then she started with how the landlord and other tenants were harassing her. Playing loud music ALL THE TIME (except for when she was on he phone with me.) And somehow causing electro-magnetic interference that destroyed her phone and that she could feel and measure. Again she told me how she wanted to move back and needed help. I basically just hmm'd in response to everything she said.

She's called twice more. First early Monday morning (I didn't answer) asking me to call someone in government to help her. How I, in MA, was going to do that, I don't know, considering I only know she lives in Ohio somewhere. And again a half hour ago (didn't answer) telling me she was being evicted. The other tenants were sending electrical shocks through the floor. She needed help to move. She has two kids in their early to mid twenties. Her oldest got married and moved to Finland. The other one lives with her.

I think she thinks I'll say "Hey, no problem. I'll help you move and you can stay with me." Nope. Ain't gonna happen. I can't block her because the phone number she has for me is a landline. Honestly it sounds likes she's in the middle of a mental health crisis. But there's really not much I can do about that.
/venting

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Wednesday reading

Boston's Orange Line, by Andrew Elder and Jeremy C. Fox. This is a collection of black-and-white photos, going back to the start of the old elevated orange line, with captions. This was for the "explore Boston history" square on the BPL summer reading bingo. If I'd noticed the "images of rail" series title, I wouldn't have borrowed this book. The captions are just about enough to confirm that there's more than enough to be said on the subject to make a book, but this isn't. This has a disjointed discussion of the lengthy "realigmnent" of the orange line to its current route, and a couple of paragraphs on the decision not to run an 8-lane interstate through the middle of Boston and Cambridge, and no suggestion that anything similar had happened elsewhere. Ah, well.

There are suggestions on the library website for some of the squares (including "with a green cover"), but not this one. Searching the catalog for "Boston histpry" got me this, along with, among other things, a book about the Big Dig, a book about the Great Molasses Flood (which is at least mentioned in this, with a picture of damage to the orange line), and Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.

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Sunshine Revival '25 #1

sunshine_revival '25 Challenge #1: "Talk about your goals for July or for the second half of 2025."

My fannish goals for the rest of this summer include:

Participate in everywoman, the fanfic exchange starring women characters, when it comes along. I will definitely offer D&DC, TLOZ, and BSG78; others' requests will influence what else I may list.

Build a pattern of recommending something once per week on recommendation communities, and then including a wrap-up of my recs here in my own journal in my monthly "Enthusiasms" post. (Or give it its own monthly post?) Probably usually in recthething, but it could be any suitable recs community. (Is it appropriate to cross-post recs to multiple recs communities? Maybe at staggered intervals?)

Finish writing and post an odd TLOZ piece I'm thinking of as: "Three Gerudo Ficlets in the Past of Tears of the Kingdom, Before Age of Imprisonment Totally Josses Them." ( Read more... )

At the end of the year, of course I plan to participate in

hlh_shortcuts, the annual Highlander fanfic exchange.

Catching up on TV whenever, I plan to watch Andor (season two) and Ironheart (season one). I wish that they released one episode per week, not tranches of episodes! I find one-episode-per-week so inviting, and these tranches so overwhelming, that I end up putting off watching these, while I am of course wholly caught up on the current season of Grantchester. Back-watching TV, I will continue my one-episode-per-week first-time viewing of Babylon 5. (Again, if you mentally classify the special effects as meant for stage instead of screen, this show does much more than merely "hold up;" I feel that it beats the heck out of most of what we have today. Storytelling, acting, episodicness and continuity...)

I already have my pre-sale tickets for Superman (2025) and The Fantastic Four (2025), of course. (Please let me say again that folks should consider watching Thunderbolts*; it's rich and satisfying in multiple layers. I'm disheartened that so many people skipped it. It's well-made and deserves better.)

How about you...?

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REC: Day by Day by surprisepink (Our Flag Means Death, Stede Bonnet/Izzy Hands)

Fandom 50 #22

Day by Day by

surprisepink
Fandom: Our Flag Means Death
Ship: Stede Bonnet/Izzy Hands
Medium: Fic
Length: 1361 words
Rating: Teen
My Bookmark Tags: slice of life, romance, humour, happy ending, established relationship, izzy lives, future, flirtation, compatibility, service
Summary: A typical raid for Captain Bonnet and his new first mate.

Excerpt:

“I’m getting the hang of this, if I do say so myself,” says Stede, cheerily.

“And you do.”

“What’s that, Izzy?’

“Say so yourself.” The man looks entirely unimpressed, but it does take a lot to impress Izzy. Stede has accepted it by this point, and knows not to take it personally. Knows, too, that if Izzy actually wasn’t at least a little happy with him, he could leave the ship just about anywhere and find another pirate crew to join. And yet, port after port, he doesn’t.

And all Stede had ever wanted was for people to stay.

This is everything I love about the idea of Stede and Izzy together on the Revenge, with Stede captaining and Izzy serving as his first mate. The way they rile each other up is perfect, tempered to just the right heat by a better understanding of each other. Izzy's ways of trying to serve Stede while keeping his ego in check are moving, and so is Stede's growing sense of what he's doing and what it means.

The story's funny, with a comedic moment early on that made me laugh out loud, and the sexual chemistry between Stede and Izzy absolutely crackles. This one really made my day.

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Six Sentence Sunday

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Current Mood: satisfied

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farmers market

Today's trip to the farmers market was successful and satisfying.

I left the house as soon as I'd had my morning tea, and went to a market that opens at 10 on Sundays. I got there at about 10:20, before they'd sold out of anything I wanted, or might want.

What I particularly wanted was raspberries, and I bought two small boxes of those (totalling about a pint).

Busa Farms had a bin full of nice-looking shell peas, and I bought almost two pounds, because Cattitude is very fond of fresh peas. When I got home, he told me that he'd thought he had missed the local pea season this year. I also bought a bunch of red radishes, because they caught my eye while I was in line to pay for the peas. (Busa had both red and purple radishes, which somehow made them more appealing than if there'd only been one kind of radish.)

Hi-Rise Bakery was there, and I bought a small loaf of their concord bread, which is the right degree of crusty for the three of us. (They also have a thicker-crust "luce.")

The raspberries are from Kimball's, where I also bought a few diva cucumbers.

Stillman's Farm didn't have lamb sausages, but when I asked about it, the vendor said "probably next week" and asked what kind I liked. She is going to report back that they had a request for merguez sausages. I don't know whether we'll get to the same market next week, but it sounds like there will be lamb sausages at the other local farmers markets soon.

A lot of other things looked good, but I decided I didn't need lettuce (multiple varieties), cherry tomatoes, or fish.

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life: a day in the

Everyone is Beautiful At the Ballet

I really need to do a proper entry at some point but right now, my head is filled with feelings about Etoile.

Dancers! Choreographers! It is everything I love and Amazon sucks for walking back a second season of this show.

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gaming:nintendo

Nintendo online shop game sale through July 9

I wanted to share that Nintendo is having what I gather is a very rare sale on its online store, with many first- and third-party games discounted through July 9.

With the 30% discount on it, I went ahead and bought The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, which otherwise I would have waited on until I was ready to play it on my Switch 2. (There is no discount on either of the Wilds games, or the BotW DLCs, or of course I would have snapped them up.) I also thought about buying Stray Gods (the role-playing musical), which I've heard such amazing things about, but there are only so many hours in a day outside work, so I'm still thinking.

The last time I personally owned a console (purchased second-hand from Goodwill), my games were on cartridges (a brown bag full of them, also from Goodwill). I do understand that getting games in the Cloud is as risky as getting books or songs or movies or TV in the Cloud, that TPTB could revoke them at any time, and I'm hesitant about it, but a friend in the games industry and his wife told me that this is the way to go now for back-ups and future compatibility and the Switch 2's new sharing system. (I'm still considering getting the Wilds games on physical media, but...) So you will perhaps understand my surprise when I made my Link's Awakening purchase and realized that there was no sales tax* on it, because it is a "service" and a "license," and therefore not taxed the same way that a physical copy on a cartridge would be. I should have observed this many years ago with apps on my phone, shows on streaming, books on Kindle, and goodness knows what all, but I had gone on buying most things in physical form, and it had just never clicked, probably because all those things individually cost so little each, while a single game is expensive enough to notice (and Nintendo's check-out screen is unusually clear).

* Sales tax is set at the state and local level in the US. Your locality may differ.

acelightning has died

I learned this morning that

acelightning has died. She was one of the people I only know online, but feel like friends because we have real conversations (in her case, here on Dreamwidth and previously on LJ).

Entry tags:

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)

Entry tags:

flowers,
gardening

Flowers

From my garden.

( flowers )

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Over halfway through TLOZ:EOW

I'm still enjoying my way through The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom! I know that some folks don't relish that its combat is mostly ranged, with mage Zelda instead of fighter Link, but I'm finding it entirely natural. They fixed the menu inconvenience with the Switch 2 upgrade; you can favorite/star echoes now, and there are more sorting pre-sets. And I've found several side scenarios that I was not at all spoiled on.

Mild spoilers for a 17-30-hour game that's been out for 9 months...

Having started with Gerudo Desert and explored it thoroughly while saving its people from the rifts and monsters, I then went to Jabul Waters and did the same. I'm afraid that I found the Zora region a little less interesting, challenging, and satisfying than the Gerudo region, which left me wondering whether I should have done them in the opposite order. The story, side quests, and follow-ups with the Zora just weren't as engaging for me, personally, as those with the Gerudo, which had more personality and pathos. For example, at this point in my gameplay, everyone in the Zora region, including in the Hylian village, is completely content as well as wrapped up, with the possible exception of the one Sea Zora who is secretly either crushing on or fangirling her chief, Kushara. Over in the Gerudo region, though, there's still one woman actively suffering from having been in a rift, and many characters expressing new hopes, dreams, fears, and projects after I fulfilled their side quests... and of course I'm still working on the Mango Rush mini-game (I know it rewards a new outfit with a stats effect). Do I smell different writers for each region? That's pretty customary, right?

After both of those, and as much side-exploration as I could manage to sweep up all the NPC situations and open up the map , of course I cleared Hyrule Castle and moved the story forward. I then did as much more free-exploring and side-questing as I could without triggering the next main story phases, and finally climbed Eldin Volcano, where I am now.

( Some loose fanfic inspirations from the game )

Entry tags:

books: fantasy

Wednesday reading

One book finished in the past fortnight: Aftermarket Afterlife, by Seanan McGuire, the 14th volume in her InCryptid series of fantasy novels. I was disappointed by this one: there were too many ghosts and too few cryptids, and the ending seemed abrupt, even given that this is number 14 in a loose series. I'm not a big fan of ghosts, and the book is narrated by Aunt Mary, the Price family's ghost babysitter. The ebook also contains "Excerpt from Mourner's Waltz," about a bit of Verity's life, as the superintendent and only human resident of a Manhattan apartment building. The novel and short story both contain massive spoilers for at least the two previous books in the series.

I gave up on Twelve Trees (mentioned in the previous post) because the printing was hard on my eyes, and since it's a hardcover rather than an ebook, I can't change the font or print size, and I have to take it back to the library.

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REC: Untitled Ouizzy Vampire AU Gifset by by emilee (Our Flag Means Death, Frenchie/Izzy Hands)

Fandom 50 #21

Untitled Ouizzy Vampire AU by

derekstilinski
Fandom: Our Flag Means Death
Relationship: Frenchie/Izzy Hands
Medium: Gifset
Length: 3 gifs
Rating: SFW
My Bookmark Tags: dark/horror, ambiguous ending, constructed reality, au: supernatural, infatuation, temptation, fear play, bloodplay (distantly implied)

Description:

In the first gif, Izzy steps uncertainly through the doorway of an abandoned church and stops in front of a flight of stairs. Frenchie jumps out at him theatrically onto the landing above, grinning in front of a full-length panel of stained glass. In the second, Frenchie's eyes glow and his lips part in the dark confines of a confessional. In the shadows on the other side, we glimpse Izzy's rapt and frightened eyes. In the third, Frenchie says something tensely and then flashes a persuasive fanged smile in the vestibule of the church, intercut with Izzy staring at him and swallowing hard, one hand pressed to the side of his face and neck.

This is my second rec for a constructed reality graphic from this same creator, and this one uses some absolutely brilliant editing to bring together what I'm pretty sure is Vengeance Is Mine and an episode of the TV show Bedlam (neither of which involve vampires) to create an AU where vampire!Frenchie and human!Izzy have a charged encounter in an abandoned church. The application of colour, the selection of eyelines, and the addition of other small edits all make this incredibly convincing, and the concept itself is very, very good to me.

I imagine this Izzy having some sort of protective interest in the church—a paid caretaker, a nosy neighbour, maybe a former vicar or member of the congregation who lost his faith after some tragic event. Whatever it is, he intends to roust out whoever's been squatting there, only to slide straight through "Oh no, he's hot" to "Oh fuck, that's a vampire" and into a dark and hot standoff between charmed predator and captivated prey.

Seriously, this is the gift of

derekstilinski's work. Three gifs and a fully formed universe full of potential stories pops into existence.

Entry tags:

updates

Cattitude took the cat in for her follow-up appointment, and the nurse said she's doing just fine, and cleared her to start eating crunchy things (which include her favorite cat treats). She hadn't been eating much in the previous few days, so they sent Cattitude home with two medications to improve her appetite. The cat has her appetite back, and headed right for the bowl of kibble, and ignored the bowl of wet food. She also informed us at dinner, when offered Greenies, that those were her proper treats, thank you very much. The other cat, Molly, is also pleased that we are once again giving them kibble and the familiar treats; there was no practical way to give Molly kibble and Kaja only wet food, so neither cat got anything crunchy for ten days.

We may be going to London last month, to sort through some of Mom's stuff, including papers and photos. (Mark needs to be there, and I want to, even though it will mean a lot of time masking, and probably a lot of takeout meals eaten in a hotel room. I emailed the cat sitter,

I checked this afternoon, and my inherited share of Mom's Vanguard account is in my account. Separately, there's a life insurance policy that seems to have asked for another form after my brother sent in what he thought was everything they wanted. In addition to the Vanguard account, there are some UK bank accounts, which Mark thinks will take several months to go through probate. All of this is a little weird, and I want my mother, not her life insurance.

Boston (along with much of the eastern United States and Canada) is in the middle of the sort of heat wave where they advise everyone to stay indoors if possible, not just people who are particularly sensitive to the heat. Both the NWS warning and the Boston heat emergency are only through this evening, but they're predicting that tomorrow will also be hotter than I find comfortable.

Entry tags:

chris evans,
movie

Materialists

I went to see Materialists this afternoon. Partly to get away from this hideous heat though I was planning on seeing it in any event. It got me thinking that the last time I actually went to the theater to see a movie it was Knives Out. Call it the Evans effect. 😀

I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's a decent rom-com that definitely has something to say about dating and "checking all the boxes."

The acting was good but Dakota Johnson somehow managed to not have much chemistry with either Pedro Pascal or Chris Evans imho.

Chris Evans looks especially soft and huggable in it.

Entry tags:

cats

(no subject)

The cat tower I ordered came. However the axiom states, “Whatever you want to do, you have to do something else first”. So before assembling it I had to move a chest of drawers and rearrange the wifi setup. That done, I laid out everything and started, redoing several misinterpretations of the instructions. It’s actually a little too tall so I didn’t add the last shelf. But I think it’s a success because a cat is lounging on the top shelf looking out the window. Before a cat had to stand and balance on the window sill to look out; now there’s lying down room. He may share with the other cat eventually. I’m pleased with the color of the shelves which is chocolate brown, not that usual dismal beige.

There were 7 cat toys found behind the dresser.

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Six Sentence Sunday

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Entry tags:

life during covid-19

(no subject)

We just had an unexpected visit: Adrian asked if I'd be willing to either mask or sit in the study with the door closed, so one of her comrades could sit in our air conditioned apartment for a little while. Adrian asked because Simcha is less heat-tolerant than I am, and at least as covid-cautious, so I said yes. It was good to talk to them; I'd met Simcha but only in passing, and Adrian hadn't met them at all, but Adrian talks about them, and Simcha is the person we recently gave our loveseat to.

That was fun, and now they have left and I have taken my mask and clothes off, and am drinking tea. I ended the visit when I started getting uncomfortably warm despite the AC, as well as it being time for me to have tea.