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why yes i do have cats

The problem with cats

I think I commented on Ms Calico's very strong predator instinct back in the day

Tabby Little is not so keen on stalking birds. Good.

She's caught two mice. Excellent

My garden contains flowers. Flowers attract pollinators. Tabby Little has brought in four monarch butterflies this summer. Very much not so good.

*sigh*

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We Heart Draco 2026: Claiming Open Till May 7

Fest Name: We Heart Draco 2026
Links: Tumblr | AO3 | Rules | Claiming Post
Type of Challenge: Anonymous prompt fest
Description: A Draco-centric Harry/Draco fest focusing on happily-ever-after. Claiming is open till May 7. The use of AI is not allowed.
Ratings Restrictions: All ratings allowed
Length Restrictions:
Fic: Minimum 1000 words; no maximum
Art: None; AI work is not allowed
Podfic: Minimum 1000 words; no maximum
Timeline:
Prompting: February 14 - March 7
Claiming: March 7 - May 7
Submissions due: May 15
Posting starts: June 5
Reveals: July 1

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cats

Cat farewell

( Cut for pet death )

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Tales of Symphonia: Oh So Lucky (Challenge #491 - I Feel Lucky)

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[ SECRET POST #7001 ]

⌈ Secret Post #7001 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 32 secrets from Secret Submission Post #1000.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

[ SECRET SUBMISSIONS POST #1001 ]

[ SECRET SUBMISSIONS POST #1001 ]

The first secret from this batch will be posted on March 14th.

RULES:
1. One secret link per comment.
2. 750x750 px or smaller.
3. Link directly to the image.

More details on how to send a secret in!

Optional: If you would like your secret's fandom to be noted in the main post along with the secret itself, please put it in the comment along with your secret. If your secret makes the fandom obvious, there's no need to do this. If your fandom is obscure, you should probably tell me what it is.

Optional #2: If you would like WARNINGS (such as spoilers or common triggers -- list of some common ones here) to be noted in the main post before the secret itself, please put it in the comment along with your secret.

Optional #3: If you would like a transcript to be posted along with your secret, put it along with the link in the comment!

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

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Challenge # 492: Talk

This week's challenge is:

Talk

Reminder of Rules

Entries should be 100, 200, or 300 words exactly, excluding titles and headers.
Please place the body of your entry behind a cut.
Tag with the appropriate Challenge, Fandom, Type, and Ratings tags. If a tag for your fandom doesn't exist, leave a request on the Tag Request post and I'll create the tags you need. You can request as many fandom tags as you want.
You don't need to use the challenge word or phrase in your drabble, though you can if you like.
Each challenge ends when the new challenge is posted, but if you're a few days late that's still fine.

NEW RULE: DOUBLE AND TRIPLE DRABBLES ARE ALSO ACCEPTED ;)

Have fun!

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Monopoly 01.26 - Weekly Reminder 8

FYI The scores for week seven are counted now; the google sheets are updated.

We already have 5 participants in the regular challenge. In the Team Challenge, we have 1 participant for Team Alpha and 3 participants for Team Omega.

There are still about one day left until the end of the week. Jump into the game and earn some points!

Remember your Joker Card if you don't like your prompts. For two tokens, you can roll the dice again!

If you have used your Joker Card to catch up with a previous week, you can still post up to two works for this week!

Important: Every participant with no work during weeks 5 to 8 will get moved to the hiatus list tomorrow.

Post all your finished works at

fandom_empire_workplace until Sunday, March 8, 18.00 UTC, but I will allow belated works until I've made the closing post. Countdown here.

Current Mood: drained

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🌈BL Manga Check-in: "Aisubeki Sadist"

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

Entry tags:

gunpla,
music

(no subject)

A busy, quiet weekend... Friday, after work, I ran a bunch of errands and then settled in. (And slept my face off.) Woke up to storms, but also having annihilated the bedding. Changed the sheets, did a ton of dishes, fussed around...

taichara and I are theoretically building MG Tallgeese Fluegel this weekend but I've not gotten mine started quite yet. Mostly finished up a 30MF Knight and have been picking up in general while half-watching the Granblue Fantasy anni stream.

Going to try to actually go through my cassettes and get through my cassettes this time... I wish I was more attached to my old radio shows, but I'm not. You know how some people have a face for radio? I had a voice for print and I sort of wish someone had done me a kindness and pointed this out sooner. So far, on my actual demo tape, I've found one incredibly good cut and that's it. I also found the single for MC Hammer's U Can't Touch This. ^_^ Right now, there's a mix tape I made at a station... So many empty cases, too. At one point, I was finding piles of my cassettes at home among my mother's stuff and I never figured out what she was doing with them.

Sorting through papers, too. I'm finding cards and whatnot from ~xmas and argh, I'm sorry and thank you to everyone who sent things. ^^;;

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fandom: merlin

“And what kind of king would Camelot want?” by klimtsonian (SFW)

Fandom: Merlin
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Arthur is the main focus with Merlin, Gwen and Morgana
Content Notes/Warnings: N/A
Medium: Digital
Artist Website/Gallery: klimtsonian
Why this piece is awesome: Lovely piece that is a little art nouveau and reminds you a little of a tarot card. The focus is on Arthur, but also hints at those behind his throne.
Link: Tumblr

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The Red Shoes

Regularly readers of this blog will know that I am a fan of Sir Matthew Bourne's New Adventures productions. Their current production is The Red Shoes, based on the 1948 film. Originally, we had planned to see it back in January at Sadler's Wells, in London, but the weather that week was dodgy, which would have upset the trains (GWR trains are very temperamental), so we got a credit for our theatre tickets and booked to see it in Cardiff instead.

We went on Thursday, with a much shorter train journey, arriving in time for lunch and a quick walk around part of Cardiff Bay before heading to the matinée performance. The Cardiff Millennium Centre is a great venue for productions, and one I'd happily return to.

The production was everything we'd hoped for. I last saw it in December 2019, so remembered most of the story, but with different dancers the performance was always going to be new. The dancing was excellent - I don't think I can pick out anyone in particular, although I was delighted Victoria Page was danced by Cordelia Braithwaite, who I really like. The staging, music and lighting all helped to enhance it, and I was so pleased we had seen it.

It continues to tour for another couple of months, and then next year, it will be Cinderella. I'm already thinking of booking tickets.

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tv: doctor who

The Haunting of Villa Diodati - Doctor Who icons

16 Doctor Who icons from 12x08 The Haunting of Villa Diodati

Check out the rest here. <3

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rl-thingslearned

Things learned in February

I keep forgetting to write down what I learned... /o\ There are a few fun things, though:

( 13+1 things I learned in February )

Entry tags:

biggles,
fics

Fic: Umbrellas

Late last year I saw a prompt on tumblr for EvS PTSD fic, and I wrote most of this, and then when I came back to it to write the ending, it took off at an entirely unexpected tangent due to me making the mistake of doing some research about film history. So here it is: Biggles, EvS, trauma and Bond Girls.

Title: Umbrellas
Content: trauma, hurt/comfort, Biggles's opinion of James Bond, 1900 words
Summary: One of Biggles's dinners with von Stalhein goes a little off-script.

( Umbrellas )

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Torchwood: I got a feeling (Challenge 501 - I feel lucky)

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Current Mood: sad
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Ateez "Sunrise"

Entry tags:

meanderings

Dept. of Fridays

Diaries

I'm writing this with a cat on my lap. I have to periodically remind Carter that he can't grab for balance at shirt. There are breasts under there, my dude, and your claws are unwelcome. Really. But I can't bring myself to knock him off my lap. That's partly because I love him, and partly because I know it won't do much good; in a minute or two, he'll be back on my lap. I have found myself repeatedly surprised by finding him back on my lap after dumping him - I don't even notice him coming up to my lap until after he's made himself comfortable and me uncomfortable. Cats. Go figure.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: exhausted

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Game Check-in: "Tokyo Debunker" prologue ch. 21-26

[Official Site] [Chapter 11-20]

Prologue

MC can't remove the Veil herself, it has to be someone she feels safe with. Lucas removes it and it turns into a ring on MC's finger. :O

When Romeo attacks again, MC somehow summons a monster which makes Kaito and Lucas uneasy about her. :'( She ends up right back with Cornelio in the end and they want to see the ring...but it won't come off. I knew that was going to happen!

For some reason Cornelio has her to take a modified ghoul test.

Lmao Hyde gave MC a calming tea and lied about making it when it was Nicolas.

So the test results show that MC has the ability to enhance ghoul's power. Many otome/joseimuke games have this kind of thing so not surprising.

Ghouls are those who sold their souls and swallowed a demon in return for something. It's interesting to ponder what brought each ghoul to go as far as they did especially considering their age. Unless they don't age and are older than they appear.

I'm so curious what power the guy who held her hand during the test had.

Ohh so the reason Lucas was freaked out earlier was because MC accidentally enhanced his power after he used his incantation. The veil was 'Sage's Ring' all along and no one knew what power it held until now.

Cornelio wants MC to go on missions with the ghouls as an 'inspector', and she can look for the anomaly that cursed her.

Current Mood: tired

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March Webnovel TBR

Using my gameboard.

Finally ready for another board. I read 6/6 on my last board and mostly enjoyed everything. I have a few ideas of things I want to read next so hope I get the chance in this board.

Avatar:

MDZS | Supernatural
Skill: Re-draw a prompt once

Roll #1

A 7 7 6, Prompt: contemporary. Althought Survive! Gwanggong! is set in a game it's still technically contemporary.

Roll #2

An 11, man fuck the trap tile, I've hit it 3 times and I just started! New roll is an 8. Prompt: enemies becomes allies/friends. Hmm hope I can find something. That easier than I thought, though not sure exactly what it means since Cale was never their enemy in this timeline. Trash of the Count’s Family.

Roll #3

An 11, prompt: rivals to lovers. Not in the mood, using skill. Prompt: horror element. Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Works!

Roll #4

A 6, prompt: romance element. I’m A Male Mom in a Nightmare Game though I haven't gotten to the romance yet.

Roll #5

A 7 and the end. Hmm I'll read more Kenkyo, Kenjitsu o Motto ni Ikite Orimasu as the reward.

Everything I wanted to read is on my TBR now!

Webnovel TBR List:

[Game World/Drama] Survive! Gwanggong!
[Isekai]/Fantasy Trash of the Count’s Family
[Horror/Fantasy] Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work
[Game World/Horror] I’m A Male Mom in a Nightmare Game
[Transmigration/Slice of Life] Kenkyo, Kenjitsu o Motto ni Ikite Orimasu

x2 BL, x3 Gen

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Mind of My Mind by Octavia E. Butler (1977)

Though written before it, this book chronologically follows Wild Seed. It picks up the story in 1970s Los Angeles, where the body-hopping immortal Doro has continued his human breeding program, now focused on creating a race of telepaths who can mind-control ordinary humans into total subjugation. He has high hopes for his daughter/lover Mary to become his most powerful telepath yet, but when her abilities fully mature, she accidentally links herself to several other telepaths, gaining psychic power over them. Now, for the first time in thousands of years, there's a real threat to Doro's control and the continuation of his eugenics project.

spoilery thoughts

As I think about this book, a thought keeps arising: This book has no good guys. Mary is not a good guy. She's is positioned as the protagonist because she opposes Doro, and in the world of the books Doro is, if not literally the worst person on Earth, at least the person with the most power to do the most harm over the longest period of time. He is a merciless sociopath who will not stop until he is the absolute ruler of humanity. Being a better person than him is a low, low bar.

To be fair, Mary never intended to bring others under her control and she doesn't know how to stop it, and she at least has some conception of using her power to help others, even if only other telepaths. And yes, most telepaths were dying or succumbing to mental breakdowns before she set up a plan to help them. But she has no qualms about enslaving the mutes (non-telepaths) and using them as an underclass to serve her and the Patternists. Some characters voice concerns, but by that time it's basically too late, she's already consolidated her power and there's no going back.

Doro's downfall has the shape of classical tragedy, as his obsession with controlling others spectacularly backfires and rebounds on him. Everything he's been working towards points inevitably to this outcome, as he creates people with stronger and stronger powers while believing he would somehow remain in control of them. But he can't have it both ways. He's made Mary everything she is, and while she lacks his immortality, she has something he doesn't: followers who see her as a savior, who love her because she's made their lives better, not just because they're scared of her.

No reader is ever going to be sad about Doro finally being defeated, but his defeat means the triumph of a society where an enslaved majority serve a privileged minority. The best you can say for it is that power is shared with a sizeable elite rather than concentrated in one absolute despot. It's the victory of the lesser of two evils—emphasis on the evil. (And again, I am reminded of Kindred's chilling examination of "less bad" enslavers in real world history.)

There actually is one good guy in the book, though. Anyanwu (here called Emma) is a tertiary character. Of course, this was written before her character had been fully revealed in Wild Seed; I wonder how much Butler already knew about her? I'm not sure what I would have thought of her if this book were all I knew. This reading order emphasizes that the best Anyanwu could ever do was to fight Doro to a stalemate, and suggests that she could never defeat him in part because she wasn't ruthless enough. Unlike Mary, she wasn't born into his twisted world, and she has a moral code that goes beyond mere self-preservation. No wonder Mary can't stand her.

With this book I felt more of a sense of it being backstory to an existing work, setting up for what's to come. Which is exactly what it is—it was written as a prequel to the first-published book in the series. And Wild Seed was in turn a prequel to Mind of My Mind, but I got more of a stand-alone vibe from that one. I still do not actually know what eventually becomes of Doro and Mary's descendants, but I am guessing it doesn't go super great for humanity!