kiki_eng | Reading

After a long day of classes (on a bank holiday, too) I treated myself to some grapefruit + nougat ice cream and then planned to spend some time reading, do some housekeeping in preparation for hosting a guest (very exciting), and then write some overdue review posts, maybe prepare some recs if I'm feeling ambitious.

Instead I spent most of the evening continuing to play Astalon: Tears of the Earth. I'd seen it recommended quite a few times on r/metroidvania and I was very curious, so when I saw it was on sale I bought it even though it's not entirely smart to start a new game 2.5 weeks before an exam. Ah well.

You play as a group of three adventurers in a post-apocalyptic wasteland that investigate (read: fight their way through) a tower from which comes a substance poisoning their village. One of them sold his soul to the titan of death, and in exchange every time you die you are transported back to the entrance of the tower.

I also saw it described as a "metroidvania with roguelite elements," which made me a bit skeptical because the other game that claims that is Dead Cells and that didn't convince me when I briefly tried it. But that description isn't really accurate because it doesn't have the procedural generation of a roguelike, it has the exploration of a metroidvania, and that's my favorite part of the genre. It just doesn't have checkpoints and very little healing. But there's plenty of shortcuts to unlock so landing back at the beginning is much less frustrating than I'd feared. And unlocking shortcuts is very satisfying; the exploration is satisfying in general, with plenty of secrets to discover. Plus, there are not that many but enough character interactions that I care about the characters as well.

After about eight hours I've beaten three bosses (one of them I'm pretty sure is optional) and discovered around 35% of the map. ( Spoilers )

glitteryv

Expectations had been HIGH ever since it was announced that Coldplay would perform in Seoul for 6 sold out shows. They had TWICE during the first show (and then dropped an annoucement of a collabo they're doing with them.)

PPL were like OJO to the max cuz it was a fact that Jin was gonna show up. After all, he'd released "The Astronaut", a pop rock "I'm going into the military, but I'll be back" song that featured Coldplay. AND, shortly before enlisting, he'd flown something like 40 hrs from SK to perform the song live at what ARMYs affectionately call ArJINtina back in 2022.

The reunion happened this past Saturday and everyone was floating on cloud nine...

NB: these two videos (though filmed in HD) are fancams. As such, there's a lot of v. happy screaming, plenty of flashing lights from the stage, etc. BigHit will most deffo release a couple of Bangtan Bombs abt these two performances at some point in the future. But this is what we've got right now, so that's what I'm sharing with y'all. :DDD

Watch on YouTube

glitteryv

So, since it's Friday, I thought "let me do a post of fun stuff ppl might want to check out over the weekend." all three videos feature Matteo Lane--a gay, Italian-American comedian. IHNI what his comedy is like, but I found him on YT when it suggested one video where he talked abt informacials. IDEK, hahah.

The shows discussed are things I either watched in real time OR am familiar enough to jabber abt for a bit.

MTV's True Life

Back in the day, one of the reasons young ppl were watching MTV was cuz of their unscripted series. This was a deocumentary-style show where each episode dealt with anything and everything you can think of. Substance abuse, homelessness, being queer, driving while Black, being a cheerleader, going to college, moving to another city, etc. The series started airing in 1998 so reality TV was a huge thing. In some ways (and despite the editing) this MTV version of reality TV felt, well, fairly real.

IIRC, I watched the first three or four seasons? It was cancelled in 2017, so there was that.

ANYWAY

One of the most INFAMOUS episodes was "I'm Getting Married". It centered around Charlie and Sabrina, an Italian-American couple from New York, and their nuptials.

Watching this was a trip cuz I remember my initial O___O when it first aired. Not only the wedding stuff, but also watching what Charlie and Sabrina's life was like, the fashion (!), the nostalgia was there in full force, LOL.

I gotta mention that Charlie had a temper and his relationship with Sabrina was...messed up in a lot of ways. Also, I have a throw in a mild content warning for discussions of what went on in Charlie's life after the show aired. Heartwrenching stuff.

Watch on YouTube

Undressed

This anthology series first aired in 1999 and got cancelled 3 yrs later. Every Monday, the show would follow a group of ppl (usually college-aged, sometimes slightly younger or older) and their romantic and/or sexual relationships (breaking up, getting together, etc). The plots had two, occasionally three, storylines focusing on a handful of the characters. By Thursday, the stories would end. And then a new set of ppl would come up in the following week and so on. The show had an v. adult vibe and would air at 11:30 p.m.

Due to the set-up, you HAD to tune in every night during a week you liked the stories or the characters. Because MTV would not only take their sweet time doing reruns of the anthology BUT ALSO, due to the premise, you wouldn't know IF they were gonna rerun the storylines you liked. It was fun most of the time, tho.

NOT THE BEST ACTING, BUT it was the show that introduced me to Katee Sackoff, so.. hey! Other notable folks who appeared include: Max Greenfield, Adam Brody, Jason Ritter, Brandon Routh, and PEDRO PASCAL.

As a matter of fact, Pedro is IN THE EPISODE Matteo is commenting abt.

One of the main reasons why I liked this show (at the time) and one of the v. few things that MTV did right was showing queer ppl alongside cishet folks without mocking the queers. Frex, the episode Matteo is revisiting is centered around an M/M couple. HOWEVER, culturally speaking, the way the show (and the rest of late 90s/earlyl 2000s media) were handled in a problematique way a lot of the time.

IT WAS ALL US QUEER FOLKS HAD TO WATCH AT THAT TIME THO! Like, on non-MTV networks, queer folks were either the joke OR presented under the "Very Special Episode" umbrella. So, in that sense, I could appreciate this show.

Anyhoodle, I deffo agree with Matteo's commentary here regarding the messiness of it all...

Watch on YouTube

NEXT

Speaking of MESSY...

This is a dating reality show that began airing a little bit after I stopped watching MTV? So 2005-ish and ran for 3 more years. I watched a few episodes while getting ready to go out, but it's not like any of them were super memorable.

This was RIDICULOUSNESS. The basic idea is that there are 5 or 6 daters who are trying to win over a single person. The longer any of the daters remains with the single, the more money they make. The last dater will get the option of keeping the money they've accumulated throughout the date OR go on a second date with the single person. That said, the single person will "NEXT" any dater they're not clicking with.

SHENANIGANS AND TOMFOOLERY EVERYWHERE! It's v., v. early 2000s. I deffo cackled a lot because I lived thru it.

Watch on YouTube

sophia_sol

one

can't believe that before I was obsessed with birds I didn't know what my favourite season was -- each season has its benefits and drawbacks, after all.

but now it's obvious that spring is the best season! and not just because of the spring bird migration (though obviously the spring migration is great). looking for birds, looking at birds, and spending time in environments that birds like: all of these things have opened my eyes to all the other joys of springtime as well!

and spring begins as early as february now for me, because the signs of spring I know how to recognise can begin that early, whereas I used to feel like it wasn't really spring till the trees started leafing in may!

two

the more you befriend people who go by a noun as a name, either online or in person, the more you get to have fun tripping up on words in sentences, like "hey why's this blog post about architecture mentioning my frien --oh right. words means things!" it's great. genuinely recommend.

three

the curse of the crafter: looking at things and going "ok but I could make that tho"

ok but WILL you. and do you have the time!

it's amazing how many things I confidently believe I could make at this point

four

I really love that Queer as Fact puts significant effort into talking about as many different queer people as possible, from many different racial and cultural backgrounds, even when the subject is challenging to find info on in english or at all. And they do a good job at working to be respectful of people groups they're not a part of, and at being up-front when there's things they don't know.

Every individual episode is interesting of course, but also the impression that builds over time as you listen through the archive is a deeply felt sense of the intellectual truth I already knew, that queer people have always been present no matter where you go. It's nice!

five

did you know: anne carson translations of greek tragedies good actually. anne carson good at words. greek tragedies compelling and delicious. theatre!!!

vriddy

Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.

Over the last week...

Posted and commented on bnha_fans! Vigilantes anime watch-along continues :D

Signal boosts:

newcomers may get busy again as more Tumblr people consider migrating (I understand there were more layoffs and the skeleton crew is now extra-skeleton). If you like helping folks settle in, consider keeping an eye on the comm! Saw crossposts on the the_great_tumblr_purge as well, which may or may not pick up again.

schneefink

mcytrecursive had author reveals. I wrote three fics! I have periods of feeling very insecure about my writing, so it was especially nice that I had a good time writing all three, felt very positively about them, and then got very nice comments.
The first two are probably readable without knowledge of the fic they are based on, but all of those are great and you should read them anyway.

cut your chains in shining blue for

strifetxt, Hermitcraft
Recursing: Untamed Beasts by

WhisperNorBury
1.6k, Cub & Scar gen, prequel
Summary: Five times Cub killed Scar's summoner.
AN: My assignment, and the hardest one to write. Especially to settle on the five things, for a good progression and to make each of them different and interesting. I think it turned out very well! I was almost done when I remembered that Minecraft has respawns so now most of it takes place on hardcore worlds.

Etho's Escort Service From Hell for

alice_not_alice, Hermitcraft
Recursing: MailDemon AU by

azzayofchaos
1.5k, Cleo & Etho gen, demon AU
Summary: Cleo has fallen into Hell again, and this time she might need the help of a friend to get out.
AN: I wanted to write a treat for Alice, discovered this AU in the prompts, and wrote it basically in one go. Cleo and Etho are so much fun together, and I was reliably informed that I did achieve "funny."

(watch) where fears and dreams come true for

Odaigahara, Hermitcraft/Life series
Recursing: lost in the dark (he's got a heavy heart) aka Hunger AU by

definitelynotshouting
2.2k, Grian & Scar & Cub gen, canon divergence
Summary: Scar came with Grian when he left Hermitcraft and figured out a different way to keep him fed.
Cub finds them.
AN: Tagged as "downright fluffy compared to the original (a low bar)," but it does still have some angst, it would not be Hunger AU Grian otherwise (at least not without changing the premise.) Hunger AU is very angsty which is great but also made me want fix-it fic (at least partially...) and when I remembered that it's set in season 8 and thus pre-Scarland I got the idea for this, and I think it works.

I also got a fantastic gift:
star of the west horizon by

Odaigahara, Hermitcraft
Recursing: a rare talent indeed by

these_godforsaken_halls
6.7k, Grian & Cub & Scar gen, fairy AU post-canon
Summary: “I’m leaving for a while,” Grian tells Xisuma, who goes very still indeed at the suggestion that a fairy might spend the night outside of the hollow. “Just for a few days, now that I’m healed– I won’t be going far, and I’ll be extremely careful, I swear it, you don’t even know careful until you’ve seen how careful I’ve been, and Scar’s saying I’m much better at hiding than I was, anyway, so there’s no need to worry on that account.”
“Goodness, er, well–”
“And I’ve already packed, including all the pixie dust I’ll need,” Grian says firmly, “but you can look through what I’m bringing with me, if you’d like. To be sure I haven’t taken anything I’m not supposed to.”
“I’m not sure that’s necessary,” Xisuma says, and this is good, because it means Grian successfully diverted him from the main thing he was likely to object to. Grian can fly circles around Xisuma if he’s devious enough. He used to dodge scouts all the time, before–
Before.
He used to bait hawks.
Why I love it: Gorgeous. Fantastic character voices and relationships, perfect post-canon road to recovery, beautiful backstory flashbacks, wonderful atmosphere, just, so good.

I had such a good time with this exchange, I already look forward to

mcytblraufest, which is doing a Battleship format this year and I'm excited.

runpunkrun

I Just Got a Kitten. What Do I Do?: How to Buy, Train, Understand, and Enjoy Your Kitten, by Mordecai Siegal:

Why do all these books with titles like What The Heck Do I Do With This Kitten??? insist on starting with a lengthy explanation of what cats are, how they work, and where to find them? I already have a kitten or I wouldn't have picked up this book which seemed to understand that I Just Got A Kitten.

It's a good resource if you're going to get a kitten and want advice on how to pick one and what to do once you've brought the guy home, but if you already have a kitten in hand, the last two chapters are the most relevant.

Fun Fact: The kitten on the cover of this book looks almost exactly like my kitten, though this kitten is fuzzier, and mine started out that small but has since tripled in size.

sophia_sol

ficlet posted! bad vibes qijiu <3

I will avenge my ghost with every breath I take

Fandom: SVSSS
Focus: qijiu
Setting: PIDW mid-canon
Length: 248 words

Themes:

orgasm denial, masturbation, sex crying, qijiu being qijiu

Summary:

Shen Qingqiu and Yue Qingyuan are both long familiar with denial.

(also on ao3: archiveofourown.org/works/64737805)

sophia_sol

a meme that's been going around! I have been tagged by various ppl, and please do it too if you want to!

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

If we're just looking at the fanfic, I'm at 50. Dang that is many!

2. What's your total ao3 word count?

Currently at 114,681!

3. What are your top five fics by kudos?

truth can find the strangest home, svsss moshang (923 kudos)

If love is what you're after, inception arthur/eames (685 kudos)

revelations from a layover flight, svsss cumplane (231 kudos)

habitat, behaviour, svsss bingqiu (195 kudos)

as free as my hair, mcu steve & bucky (163 kudos)

4. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently: mxtx's three books are on constant rotation in my head and have been for several years. This is by far the most fic I have ever written for a fandom!

5. Do you respond to comments? why or why not?

I do try to! But sometimes I forget, or get overwhelmed, and then all of a sudden it's been years and it feels a bit late! I'm much better at it in recent years, at least, than I was in the early 2010s.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hmmm I think when I go for non-happy endings they're usually more bittersweet than angsty... like, for example, "I know what that song means now" (mdzs, jyl/jzx), where the viewpoint character is satisfied with her choices and priorities but narrative doom is hanging over her. And I have several other fics too with the impending threat of narrative doom as the main closing emotion.

For a different approach I also have "promises" (cremation of sam mcgee), but that's creepy rather than angsty.

I really don't think I have written any fics with a specifically angsty ending!

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I think the most uncomplicatedly happy ending would be either "habitat, behaviour" (svsss, bingqiu), or "bodies, talking" (mdzs, jyl/jzx), both of which have endings focused on basking in the ways a good relationship with a partner who understands your needs can be so fulfilling.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I have gotten occasional complaints but never straight up hate, so far! At least, that I can remember, lol. Sometimes a bad memory is helpful!

9. Do you write smut?

Sometimes! When it suits the needs of the fic I feel moved to write. It can be a really fun aspect of a character or relationship to explore!

10. Do you write crossovers?

I used to be a lot more into crossovers when I was younger. These days there's a much higher bar to clear for me to be into a crossover idea. The last crossover I wrote was in 2014!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Other than the inevitable LLM bot scraping, not that I'm aware of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I vaguely recall having been asked once or twice, but I don't think anything ever came of it.

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

I did occasionally, in long ago days, but I haven't cowritten in many years at this point.

14. What's your all time favourite ship?

Too hard to answer! I refuse!!! How am I supposed to choose between so many amazing ships!

15. What's the wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

The wangxian telepathic bond. Longing sigh....

16. What are your writing strengths?

Vibes, themes, characters.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Plot, fast-paced action or adventure, snappy conversations, that kind of thing.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I think there are contexts where it can be an effective choice to include untranslated dialogue, and I think that I'm not qualified to write the kinds of fic where it would be an effective choice.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

As far as I am aware, the fairy tale Cinderella, when I was about 8 years old.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Look, my fave is usually whatever I've most recently finished! Because it's what's been occupying my mind the most! Soooo it's either my yet-unposted jingyi fic (just needs me to figure out how to implement an improvement suggested by my beta), or my mxtx remix fic (won't be revealed till April 18, and won't be revealed as being by me until April 25)! So you don't get to read either of them yet. But SOON!

endotwracism

The OTW has announced the next public Board meeting will be held on April 26 from 15:00 to 16:00 UTC. For some that will actually be the 27th, though, so be sure to check what time that is for you.

The posted agenda:

Decisions made since the last public meeting
Updates to the Board Year Roadmap
Strategic Planning One Year Implementation Report
Any other business (Questions & Answers)

Meetings are held in the OTW Discord server and last approximately an hour. The Board will address the agenda first, and once that business is concluded they will take at least ten questions. Questions that are not answered during the meeting will be combined and posted as weekly Q&A threads in the #questions-answers channel starting two weeks after the most recent public meeting.

For this meeting, there is the option to send in questions in advance through a Google Form. You'll need to be logged into a Google account in order to submit a question, and only one question per person will be accepted. Questions can be submitted up to three days before the meeting begins or until fifty questions have been submitted. At that point, the form will be closed.

Because procedures may continue to change, we recommend reading through the OTW Discord's Community Guidelines in the #rules channel to familiarize yourself with the details of how meetings will be run.

We hope to see you there!

--The Fandom Against Racism Team

vriddy

I posted another bunch since the last post :)

Prompt: Food poisoning

'Now' also matters | Dabi/Hawks | 900 words | rated T
Summary: Hawks gets a visitor after a night of misery.
Read it on Dreamwidth or AO3.

Prompt: Sunburns

Icarus, who flew too close to the sun | Dabi/Hawks | 1k words | rated T
Summary: Hawks burns. More specifically, his face.
Sunburns suck.
Read it on Dreamwidth or AO3.

Prompt: Twisted knee

After the fall | Dabi/Hawks | 1.6k words | rated T
Summary: Dabi falls off a ladder while building his latest shed... Alas, one cannot just staple a knee together to keep moving.
Read it on Dreamwidth or AO3.

Prompt: Crying

Make your bed, (say a) lie in it | Miruko/Dabi/Hawks | 1.1k words | rated T
Summary: Dabi and Rumi are cuddling in Hawks' bed, asleep. Hawks watches them and just like that, months of compartmentalisation and lying to himself fall apart.
This cannot last.
Read it on Dreamwidth or AO3.

Prompt: Magical curse

Quirk or curse | Dabi/Hawks | 1.7k words | rated T
Summary: Magic doesn't exist. This is not a curse. This has got to be a fucked up quirk of some sort.
-
Hawks deals with the aftermath of a run-in with the CRC.
Read it on Dreamwidth or AO3.

vriddy

Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.

Over the last week...

Commented on

common_nature.

Commented on

booknook.

The BNHA Vigilantes anime started, so I posted the first reaction post on

bnha_fans and promoted the watch-along on

anime_manga :)

runpunkrun

A global catastrophe, a people who can control rock and lava and must hide who they are or be enslaved—or killed—and a story that starts out like fantasy, turns into the kind of science fiction where advanced technology left behind by earlier civilizations might as well be magic, and then circles back around to magic. Just as this is both science fiction and fantasy at once, the tenor of the second person POV similarly slides back and forth over the course of the series, telling two stories with a single voice.

It's brutal and incredibly engrossing, with detailed worldbuilding, interesting voices, and complex characters. The ways these people love each other is bananas.

Don't read the blurbs because they have spoilers, but do read these books one after another for maximum effect, and know that there's a glossary in the back that I only found once I was finished with the first book. It would have been helpful while I was still reading, but thanks to the excellent and immersive writing, I sussed out all the meanings on my own.

Highly recommended, though the content will be a dealbreaker for some. A child dies violently at the hands of his father on the first page, and it haunts the rest of the book, though that's only the beginning of the tragedy.

Contains: climate apocalypse; violence; child harm—including sexual abuse—and death; a literal caste system with institutionalized slavery, forced breeding, eugenics; a world where brown skin is the default; generational trauma; polyamory; transgender supporting characters; second person POV; animal harm; amputation; references to cannibalism.

( Status Updates from Goodreads )

wanderings

Started Astalon: Tears of the Earth

Fannish 50 S3 Post 10: Jin and Coldplay REUNITED!!

Fannish 50 S3 Post 9: MTV Nostalgia Done Right With Matteo Lane

5 things: spring, noun names, the crafter curse, queer as fact, anne carson's greek tragedies

Community Thursday

Hermitcraft recursive exchange: 3 fics written and 1 received

I Just Got a Kitten. What Do I Do?, by Mordecai Siegal

svsss ficlet: I will avenge my ghost with every breath I take (qijiu)

20 questions for fic writers

OTW Board Meeting on April 26!

Latest batch of hurt/comfort haven fic

Prompt: Food poisoning

Prompt: Sunburns

Prompt: Twisted knee

Prompt: Crying

Prompt: Magical curse

Community Thursday

The Broken Earth Trilogy, by N.K. Jemisin

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