Brain update, plus recs
Dec. 22nd, 2019 10:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
st_aurafinaHey new friends! Welcome!
Mental health update: My new LGBT-friendly unicorn of a GP has put my desvenlafaxine up to 150mg, because, as she says, when you're used to a low bar of mental health, you forget that there's a possibility for mood to be good. I've been at that dose for nearly a month now, and at first I was like, meh, it's not going to make a difference at this point. And then a few weeks in, I was like, ehh maybe it's better? And today I actually felt... good? In control? Is this what good mental health is? That last question is probably 50% sarcasm. Probably. It's getting dark and I'm crashing out again, in a low-key, I-know-what-this-is way, but I want to remember that there were some good moments.
The friending meme is ticking along very nicely, yay! I cruise around keeping an eye out for any hiccups, and I love seeing people making connections and having conversations. It's very heartening. We are a good bunch, fandom. Especially fandom on Dreamwidth.
Friending meme is here, for people who missed the link:
ReccingThursday Sunday
I promised some Harold/John recs fornerakrose because yay new POI friend!!
![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
astolat is great for Harold/John (and she wrote a really good and plotty Harold/Shaw/John fic too, if that's at all your jam.) I've picked a fave to link here:
Technical Support (Rated Explicit)
It's an AU where Harold is still working at IFT, and John takes a job as a security guard. I love an AU where circumstances change but the characters are still fundamentally themselves. There's an excellent cameo by Detective Carter, too: the way she diverts John from homelessness to a steady job really works for the set-up we saw in the pilot.
the_ragnarok is my go-to author for POI kinkfic - they write the kind of thought-driven, negotiated kink scenarios that focus on mental conversations and sensory descriptions. They're very good with AUs, especially AUs with otherworldy Finch, who occasionally has tentacles. (This is a good thing!) The fic I've linked isn't a kink fic, or a tentacle fic, but it is a vampire AU and it's excellent:
a creature more of night than day (Rated Explicit, Vampire AU)
talkingtothesky is a multishipper - I mean, if there's a rare pairing out there, Sky will have had a go at it. She is fearless! But I think Harold/John is one of the pairings of her heart. (Stop me if I'm wrong, here, Sky.) The one I've linked is set at the end of Identity Crisis, when Harold is off his nut on ecstasy. It's very tender:
Every Time I Fall You Catch Me (Rated Teen, implied drug use, missing scene)
canadianwheatpirates mostly writes (excellent) femslash, but there's also this short and hot Harold/John strip club AU:
For Your Entertainment, (Rated Explicit)
livenudebigfoot has done stellar work this year converting me to the emotionally-messed up yet tender lovefest that is John/Fusco, and I'd love to rec you all of their fic so you too can take that amazing journey, but since these are Harold/John recs, here's a very good, very wrought story set immediately after 2.16 Dead Reckoning:
Time Enough at Last (Rated Explicit)
I lean towards the supernatural in terms of what I prefer in an AU, and this one is fantastic: all ferocious magic and angelic language and fantastic mythology:
Irregular bymanic_intent (Rated Mature, Dragon/Angel AU)
This last one is a crossover with something called the Lord Darcy Series, which is something I keep meaning to investigate, because based on this fic, it has a lot of tropes I like. Like, hand kissing. And swearing fealty. And mid-twentieth century spycraft merged with magic. Mix these things with Harold/John, and it's just about the most perfect feast of tropey goodness you can imagine.
For King and Country bykillalla (Rated Teen, AU-fantasy)
As for upcoming fanworks in POI fandom, I'm hopeful there'll be a Person of Interest Big Bang this year, and possibly a Reverse Big Bang, which is where you write fic for a piece of art. Possibly the POI exchange. And I'm trying to get myself together early this time so I can run the POI advent.
livenudebigfoot and I are trying to get a Person of Interest bookclub kind of thing together where we all read a fic - we're planning on starting with the last Big Bang. I'm not sure where we're hosting it yet - we're wavering between DW, Discord or giving Pillowfort a try.
Mental health update: My new LGBT-friendly unicorn of a GP has put my desvenlafaxine up to 150mg, because, as she says, when you're used to a low bar of mental health, you forget that there's a possibility for mood to be good. I've been at that dose for nearly a month now, and at first I was like, meh, it's not going to make a difference at this point. And then a few weeks in, I was like, ehh maybe it's better? And today I actually felt... good? In control? Is this what good mental health is? That last question is probably 50% sarcasm. Probably. It's getting dark and I'm crashing out again, in a low-key, I-know-what-this-is way, but I want to remember that there were some good moments.
The friending meme is ticking along very nicely, yay! I cruise around keeping an eye out for any hiccups, and I love seeing people making connections and having conversations. It's very heartening. We are a good bunch, fandom. Especially fandom on Dreamwidth.
Friending meme is here, for people who missed the link:
Reccing
I promised some Harold/John recs for
nerakrose because yay new POI friend!! Technical Support (Rated Explicit)
It's an AU where Harold is still working at IFT, and John takes a job as a security guard. I love an AU where circumstances change but the characters are still fundamentally themselves. There's an excellent cameo by Detective Carter, too: the way she diverts John from homelessness to a steady job really works for the set-up we saw in the pilot.
a creature more of night than day (Rated Explicit, Vampire AU)
Every Time I Fall You Catch Me (Rated Teen, implied drug use, missing scene)
For Your Entertainment, (Rated Explicit)
Time Enough at Last (Rated Explicit)
I lean towards the supernatural in terms of what I prefer in an AU, and this one is fantastic: all ferocious magic and angelic language and fantastic mythology:
Irregular by
This last one is a crossover with something called the Lord Darcy Series, which is something I keep meaning to investigate, because based on this fic, it has a lot of tropes I like. Like, hand kissing. And swearing fealty. And mid-twentieth century spycraft merged with magic. Mix these things with Harold/John, and it's just about the most perfect feast of tropey goodness you can imagine.
For King and Country by
As for upcoming fanworks in POI fandom, I'm hopeful there'll be a Person of Interest Big Bang this year, and possibly a Reverse Big Bang, which is where you write fic for a piece of art. Possibly the POI exchange. And I'm trying to get myself together early this time so I can run the POI advent.
livenudebigfoot and I are trying to get a Person of Interest bookclub kind of thing together where we all read a fic - we're planning on starting with the last Big Bang. I'm not sure where we're hosting it yet - we're wavering between DW, Discord or giving Pillowfort a try.
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Date: 2019-12-22 03:17 pm (UTC)Good for you! Let me know how it goes.
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Date: 2019-12-26 10:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-22 03:24 pm (UTC)Also, yay for discovering what a Good Mood feels like!
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Date: 2019-12-26 10:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-26 02:21 pm (UTC)Well what platform is it on? How do I watch it?
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Date: 2019-12-27 02:21 am (UTC)It's a closed canon - finished in 2016. But lots of fun, lots of AIs and loyalty kink and tough ladies.
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Date: 2019-12-27 02:48 pm (UTC)Looks like it's on Netflix here--yay! I shall add it to the queue!
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Date: 2019-12-22 03:59 pm (UTC)There are two books worth of short stories and one novel by Randall Garrett plus a couple of books set in the same universe that were written by other authors after Garrett's death. Garrett's stories were published in the 1960s and 1970s. They're reasonable mysteries, but they're not much more than that.
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Date: 2019-12-22 06:02 pm (UTC)(https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_ragnarok/pseuds/the_ragnarok)
I love their Vampire Harold AU very much.
♥
Your new worried John icon is giving me feels - who is he looking at?
Can we combine the Big Bang and Reverse Big Bang into the same event, I wonder? There would need to be separate signups and claiming, but the rest could stay the same.
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Date: 2019-12-27 02:31 am (UTC)Your new worried John icon is giving me feels - who is he looking at?
Harold's sharp teeth? No, it's more like, is Harold looking pale? Should I go steal a few bags of A+?
There would need to be separate signups and claiming, but the rest could stay the same.
So, like, run them out of the same collection? Yeah, for sure. That would work well!
<3
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Date: 2019-12-22 06:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-27 02:33 am (UTC)Yes, this is what I am finding. Still cycling, but the wave moved upwards a bit so the peaks are higher, and the troughs are not as deep.
It's a relief.
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Date: 2019-12-22 07:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-27 02:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-22 09:00 pm (UTC)I've been on it for over a decade now, and that with Abilify work wonders for me. Best med mix I've ever been on for depression.
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Date: 2019-12-27 02:40 am (UTC)Brains, man. So weird.
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Date: 2019-12-22 11:01 pm (UTC)I'm glad you have a good GP who looks out for your mental health. tbh I should probably be on antidepressants but I have no idea how to even bring it up to my GP without sounding like a faker.
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Date: 2019-12-27 02:55 am (UTC)I have no idea how to even bring it up to my GP without sounding like a faker.
Oh, man, no. If they think you're a faker, they're a bad doctor.
If it helps you to bring up the topic, I'd suggest filling out a checklist and taking it to your GP? This one from Beyond Blue is good: Anxiety and Depression Checklist.
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Date: 2020-01-04 07:19 pm (UTC)I just have bad GP experiences, so I'm wary. I'll sort it all out eventually...
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Date: 2019-12-28 12:29 am (UTC)I just joined a Tim Minchin fanpage on Facebook!
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Date: 2019-12-27 04:26 am (UTC)Yes, there was good world building that can be taken advantage of.
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Date: 2019-12-23 11:52 am (UTC)I mean I know you weren't asking me personally, but I would have no idea XD
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Date: 2019-12-27 03:35 am (UTC)<3
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Date: 2019-12-24 03:38 am (UTC)I know sometimes my problem with not wanting to change meds was because I just wasn't sure it wouldn't get worse. :/
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Date: 2019-12-27 03:37 am (UTC)Oh, I know the feeling. But this doctor is very good at giving me the info, and discussing what we'll do if it doesn't work, so I felt reasonably safe giving it a go.
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Date: 2020-01-01 03:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-24 06:34 pm (UTC)Ain't that the truth. I hope the meds keep making a difference!
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Date: 2019-12-27 03:37 am (UTC)And thanks - me too.
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Date: 2020-01-01 09:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-02 06:21 am (UTC)And yeah, the book club is off and running:
Book Club for January 2020
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Date: 2020-01-02 06:36 am (UTC)