Patron Saint of Falling Over Things

( The point where medicine intersects with the Singularity )

( Things on fire )

Festivids!
Aaah, so many good vids.

Our House (Rated General) by cosmic_llin
Fandom: Ghosts (TV 2019)
Song: Our House by Madness
For a show I haven't watched but I sure am going to check out, which seems to be about a team of ghosts working cooperatively to oust new homeowners who want to turn the house into a hotel. Very funny, very snappy, lots of fun.

what's to come (Rated Teen, Jesus Christ/Judas Iscariot) by ryfkah
Fandom: Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert (2018)
Song: Superstar, by Tegan and Sara
(More bts commentary over here at skygiant's dreamwidth)
Is it weird that often the perfect song is just something really unexpected? I wouldn't have picked this one in a million years and it is so good. So bitter and obsessed and inevitable. I've watched it a lot.

Apple Blossom (Rated General, Henry "Indiana" Jones/Marion Ravenwood) by lily_the_kid
Fandom: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Song: Apple Blossom by The White Stripes
An excellent, punchy Marion vid, with great comedic timing.

Let Me Go (Rated General) by kaydeefalls
Fandom: Moana
Song: Copenhagen by Vienna Teng
This gave me goosebumps - such a good song, such a good interpretation of Moana's journey.

Chldren's Work (Rated Teen, Michael Burnham and Spock) by such_heights
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery
Song: Children's Work by Dessa
I cannot think of a better song to show their relationship than this one, and it's done so well.

Be Brave (Rated Teen, Amanda Grayson/Sarek, Michael Burnham & Spock) by pixie
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery
Song: Meet Me on the Battlefield
This mixes canon from TOS, TNG, the third movie, and the reboot movie to give an amazing picture of this family unit. Wow.

When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (Rated Teen, Michael Burnham & Mirror Philippa Georgiou) by starlady
Fandom: Star Trek: Discover
Song: Bury a Friend by Billie Eilish
Ngggghh ahahah. So funny, so hot, and so clever with the little asides in the song. Mirror Philippa is a damn treasure, and this vid knows it.

Grounds for Divorce (Rated General) by purplefringe
Fandom: Hamlet (2009)
Song: Grounds For Divorce by Elbow
This is for the David Tennant version, and it's so good. So sharp and stuttery. Ooof. I watched this one over and over. If you see one vid from the exchange, make it this one.


Past Imperfect, Future Unknown
I got two amazing gifts for this fest!

second turning, (Captive Prince, Rated Teen, Damen/Laurent)
Damen travels back in time to before when he and Laurent meet in the books, he knows what's to come, and he's trying to head it off. It is fascinating to read a Damen who loves Laurent, and a Laurent who would happily murder Damen. I love it - it's complicated and it's got all the feels, and it's beautifully written. Short, punch and full of feels. It's so good.

Broken Clock (Imperial Radch, Rated , Sphene/Captain Minask, Sphene and Queter)
A wonderful, world-buildy example of "Character Invents Time Travel to Save Loved One". Such a good Sphene voice, such an excellent dynamic with its new captain of sorts, Queter. This is very timey-wimey and clever with the twists and turns of a time-travel plot. And it gushes loyalty kink. I loved it.

One rec that wasn't a gift for me (but it was, in a way, because I loved the crap out of it):
Will the cycle be unbroken (BSG 2003, Rated G, Hera Agathon)
Adult Hera wakes up on a Cylon ship, before the Twelve Colonies are attacked. The fic has hints of Hera's life on New Earth, what it was like growing up in a culture of subsistence farmers made up of humans and Cylons. It builds on Cylon society. It's timey-wimey as fuck, and it's clever about the reasons for the Cylon attack in the first place. It's 14k of excellent story telling from a tough but relatively normal character. I really enjoyed it.

Chocolate Box opens soon, yay!! There's so many Person of Interest fics! I'm proud of my fandom.


I've not been around much, and I've been skipping my weekly posts at podcastjoy for which I'm sorry - medical stuff is exhausting. I always forget how exhausting. Today wasn't even that bad, but we're both just flaked out on the sofa, exhausted. Hopefully we get a diagnosis soon and lilacsigil can start feeling better.

Wee Linkspam
- via ozqueen, this excellent short story based on the poem Jubilate Agno, Fragment B, [For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry] by Christopher Smart. I am going to nominate this as a Yuletide 5 minute fandom, because I want all the fic about Jeoffry and his demon fighting cat friends:
For He Can Creep, by Siobhan Carroll
(The original poem is here: Jubilate Agno, Fragment B, [For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry]. You'll want to go and read/re-read it when you're done with the story.)

- via china_shop
AO3 Hugo Award Winner at Redbubble.
Get a T-shirt! Get a mug! Annoy the crap out of the SMOFs who think we're degrading the good name of the Hugos.

- via musesfool and minimcalibre, a new community: hall_no
AKA The Leonard Cohen Title Challenge (Any Freaking Song but Hallelujah) challenge, inspired by this genius tumblr post: Hallelujah titles. Basically, you write a fic with a title from any Leonard Cohen song but that one. And link it there. (And inside that post sabinetzin has put together a list of lyrics that would make great Good Omens titles: good (omens) leonard cohen lyrics.)

- via Facebook, I think, and then onto Twitter:
How do you write an X?
It's an informal poll from a while ago, about how people write the letter x. I'm number seven, because that's how you write it in cursive, which is the joined writing style I learned at school.

- I think Facebook threw this one at me, too:
Good Omens: How Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett wrote a book, by Neil Gaiman.  
"It's Terry," said Terry. "'Ere. That thing you sent me. Are you doing anything with it?"
"Not really."
"Well, I think I know what happens next. Do you want to sell it to me? Or write it together?"
"Write it together," I said, because I was not stupid, and because that was the nearest I was ever going to get to Michaelangelo phoning to ask if I wanted to paint a ceiling with him.
Just a really nice retrospective on how the novel happened, and how close we came to David Tennant playing Crawleigh who drove a Citroen.

- at The Guardian:
'Frozen in time' wreck sheds new light on Franklin's ill-fated 1845 Arctic quest
For fans of The Terror, new ground mapping of the actual shipwreck. (I want to watch it? But also, I'm picky about my cannibalism stories.)

- via me, who wants people to listen to Mission to Zyxx, which is a semi-improvised, high production value sci-fi podcast that is in love with Star Wars, Star Trek and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (you can find the podcast here: Mission to Zyxx), this excellent interview with the cast:
We're Mission To Zyxx, And This Is How We Work
(It's just so funny and easy to listen to. In later seasons, there's a sentient bean!)

- via runpunkrun:
how to make linked footnotes on AO3 by teekettle
(Useful for Good Omens fic writers!)

- via marthawells, The Colony Tree project, carried out at Worldcon in Dublin, a collaborative fibrearts project to make a Colony Tree, the giant tree where the Raksura make their home. I've linked to the earliest page of the blog, so you can follow the development along: The Raksura Colony Tree.


Reccin' Thursday
From auexchange 2019

- The Witch-Wife's Tale by enviropony (Rated Mature, Black Sails, Miranda/Thomas/James)
AU where Miranda learns witchcraft, which saves her life and the lives of the people she loves. A really satisfying fixit, with a happy ending for my favourite threesome of this show. (And isn't it nice to be able to have more than one threesome in a show so I can have a favourite? Black Sails was great that way.)

- Math and Poetry and Gunmanship, by sholio (Rated Teen, Punisher, Frank and Leo Lieberman)
Leo is such a tough little nut in this post-apocalyptic AU, where she asks Frank to help her find her missing parents. It's great. (I would read the crap out of an YA series of this world, with all the weird tech and animal hybrids and monsters. IJS.)

- Flower of Justice by lea_hazel (Rated Teen, Imperial Radch, Breq and Seivarden)
Dragonrider AU, with an amazingly inhuman dragon Justice of Toren dealing with a Seivarden pulled out of a frozen lake. Splendid world building, and really clever translation of the Radch novels to a dragony world.

- even the last of the blue-eyed babies know by lastwingedthing (Rated Teen, GoT/Winter Soldier, Bucky and Shireen Baratheon)
It's a fun amalgam of the two worlds with lots of excellent survival stuff and teamwork, but I'm reccing this for the sheer glory of Bucky rushing Stannis's soldiers with a machine gun as they drag Shireen away to the pyre. The massive overpowering which would normally bug me is incredibly satisfying in this particular case. The best possible revenge for what actually happened to Shireen.

Not from auexchange but it is an AU:
- Cracked by mad_maudlin (Rated Teen, Doctor Who, wee!Amelia & her aunt)
The summary is excellent and spooky as hell: "Something is the matter with Amelia." This is an AU where the Doctor travels with Amelia, told from the POV of the aunt who takes care of her after her parents disappear, and through the events of S5. Creepy as hell. I love that even while we know what's going on, and have a good idea of the Doctor's best intentions, it's all so malevolent from poor Auntie Sharon's perspective.

( Cut for partner illness, cat illness, both are okay-ish )

Actually, I seem to recall that Pristiq gives me a bit of rage. Maybe that's where all the all-caps anger is coming from. I am not normally an all-caps person.

Thursday recs:
Yeah, it's Friday here. Come fight me! I'm on drugs now. *puts up fists*

- Excerpts from A.Z. Fell and Co.’s Yelp Page by itsclydebitches (Good Omens, Rated Teen, Aziraphale/Crowley)
Just what it says on the label: Yelp reviews. Very funny and sweet. (Also archived in plain text at AO3)

- sing for the angel a psalm of shadows by raven (Good Omens, not rated, Aziraphale/Crowley)
Five times Aziraphale attempted to tempt a human being and failed, utterly and completely, in service of God’s plan.

I'm always glad when I share a fandom with raven because they write so beautifully - this is lyrical and full of history and a little bit dreamy, with lots of non-binary angel love, and it makes me really happy to have read it.

- Turn by kass (Rated Explicit, Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley)
Crowley broke the kiss again. "Angel," he said flatly, "where is your cock."

More non-binary angel love, which is exquisitely explained on a scholarly level, because kass is very clever like that. It's a lovely story, easy-going and beautiful and funny.

(I'm starting to see a pattern with me and Good Omens fandom: I don't want to create fanworks, but I sure as hell want to celebrate, especially all the old friends popping up. Also, genderqueer angels are my jam.)

- Things in Bloom by sunlitstone (Rated General, Person of Interest, John/Harold)

Just a really nice first kiss fic from this year's Not Primetime Exchange. Gentle slice of life stuff, as John lets Harold into his life a little bit.

(Yeah, I'm obviously craving fic that is soft and gentle. Like shredded chicken when you're a cat with no teeth.)

Dreamwidth code push! We can @ now! It's so great! But they moved the 'post comment' button on the text box, and where I'd normally click to post, there's a quote button. So apologies to anyone who has received "" in comments from me. Was an accident!

---

Reccing Thursday (for some value of Thursday somewhere on this planet)

- Salim's Next 5 Wishes, by anonymous in fandom5k
(Explicit, American Gods, the Ifrit/Salim)
Five things style fic for the two characters I felt the most about in S1. I'm not sure if it's spoilery for S2. I haven't seen Season 2 and it worked fine for me. And it's beautifully written, with joy and bittersweet moments, and an eventual happy ending.

- PRojects IN Controlled Environments, version Sith by bethwinter
(Star Wars Original Flavour, gen)
I keep finding stories about giant bureaucracies and the little niches that people make inside them, and this is wonderful: an project manager in the Empire, dealing with prima donna engineers and sabotage and a mysterious annotator injecting themselves into her pilot testing program. It's so good, and also there are lol-cats.

- How Falling in Love is Like Owning a Dog by Taylor Mali
Not a fic, but a poem! I found it when I was googling for a title for my Person of Interest Bear POV fic. I loved it a lot and I tried to work it in, but it didn't fit. So I will share it here: it's very New York-ish, very dog, if you know what I mean.

---

That three things meme: kass gave me Pot, Glass, Magnet

Pot: Can't wait for it to be legal in Australia. I think it has a place in mental health, in cancer treatment, in chronic pain management. Probably more. I am looking forward to being able to dispense it (if that's how it unfolds.) I think it's stupid that we've ignored a good and therapeutic agent for so long.

Glass: Hm. I am hopeful that we're going to get a glass-specific recycling bin soon in my region. It's being trialled in a township not far from here. Keeping glass separate from other recycling is supposedly very effective at increasing the efficiency of recycling overall. This desire is entirely to do with saving the planet and nothing to do with my love of sorting things into things. *nods*

Magnet: Welp. I don't have many magnet opinions. I wish I'd done a little better at physics; perhaps I'd feel stronger about them. Okay, compasses are cool. Also cool is the fact that we probably have little compasses in our heads: The sixth sense: can humans detect the Earth’s magnetic field?

Yay, I have magnet opinions after all! If you'd like three things, please ask.

I got a last minute treat in the Exchange of Interest, it's Lionel Fusco and his actual literal moral compass, and I want the whole world to read it:

True North (4680 words) by livenudebigfoot
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Person of Interest (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Lionel Fusco/John Reese
Characters: Lionel Fusco, John Reese
Additional Tags: Magical Artifacts, Dubious Morality, Fusco is Slightly Magical and Annoyed About It AU, Treat
Summary:

Lionel Fusco has a moral compass. But, like, an actual one. He keeps it in his pocket and sometimes he argues with it.

Linkspams
- sholio is hosting a Defenders Prompt Fest, in celebration of Jessica Jones Season 3.

- Signup are open for Multifandomdrabble 2019 Round Two

- Nominations are open for Everywoman 2019

- corsetsandlemons is a Classic Literature Anonymous Kink Meme, omg. The current post is here: Corsets and Lemons Kinkmeme
I loved the description on fandomcalendar: So if you want to see those Jane Austen heroines have a nice orgy with each other, or if you have untold wtf fantasies about Rochester (who hasn’t), or if you really want that Bingley/Darcy hurt/comfort fic this is the place for you.

- seasonofkink is open for business. You can ask for a card here: Sign-up for 2019 Season of Kink!

- I grabbed this link when the GoT finale was going down (my condolences on that, people who are fans and did not enjoy it.) I've saved it to my writing resources tag because it's an excellent explanation of the difference between pantsers and plotters, and the benefits of each method. I'm blown away by the idea that pantsing might even have benefits. I've always thought of pantsing (ie, writing by the seat of your pants, with little or no plan) as a really bad idea and something I should try to avoid and yet never can. But in this series of tweets, it describes pantsers as people who write to find out what happened, which is EXACTLY what I do. And maybe I should be viewing that as a form of first draft, something that gets my story down. The link is here:

Want to know why Game of Thrones *feels* so different now? I think I can explain. Without spoilers.

It's talking in context of Game of Thrones and the way GRRM writes, and what that meant for the showrunners, but I found it really interesting for the way that I write.

- Also an excellent writing resource, this article talks specifically about Scottish Gaelic, but is applicable to using other languages in the body of you work, how to make good decisions about those words and make them mean something in the narrative:
How to Use Scottish Gaelic in Your Novel, Part 2: An Example

Baggins got sick at the end of May, but he's better now: ( head cat is just a head )

In the tradition of pets becoming like their owners, lilacsigil's cat is bossy, and my cat is an anxious bag of nerves.

I was going to make a post about how I've been quiet because life has been a bit garbage, but this morning I woke up and things were a little bit okay?

( Cutting the bad stuff: illness, work issues, death in the community )

While this was going on, I somehow managed to churn out 1000 words a day for Camp Nano in April, and finish one of my big WIPs, clocking in at 80k. I'm editing that now, and I hope I can start posting soon. I finished my gift fic for the Person of Interest exchange and I'm tooling around with some treats now. (Weirdly, while we were in hospital I had this urge to go back and re-read my Twin Peaks/X-Files crossover, and I've only just now realised that I wrote that the last time there was major health stuff going on. Maybe I write more when I'm stressed? IDK I can live with writing less, if that's the case.)

Also, the whales have started appearing to scope out the whale nurseries along the coast, and that is always reassuring, when you are feeling overwhelmed by the imminent collapse of the world.

Linkspam
Some of these have been in my to-post folder for a while, so apologies if it's been seen around everywhere already.

- podcastjoy - I started a podcast comm! (With glinda!) It's for all kinds of podcast things, and I'm planning a weekly Watcha Listening To type post, because I crave new podcasts.

- audiodrama, because it never rains but it pours, there's also a comm for audio dramas, so, fictional podcasts. Added bonus: there's a kinkmeme here:Prompt/Kink Meme. Go leave prompts!

- from my network, the signs as upsetting vintage dishes. It's Facebook, but it's unlocked. And the dishes are very vintage, very upsetting. Lots of jello.

- Harry Potter: Wizards Unite available in Australia and New Zealand in open beta at theverge.com
lilacsigil and I are playing it right now - it is a mix of adorable and clunky, but I think as the activity ramps up and they start finetuning the gameplay, it will be fun. (Also, I had to rescue a Chudley Cannons player, and she was super hot.)

- snickfic has a great idea to follow Reading Wednesday, Thursdays are for Reccing.

- via lilacsigil who sent me the link: People might have lived in Australia twice as long as we thought (at The Guardian)

- rachelmanija posted a round-up of people currently reading Enid Blyton boarding school stories, and a poll: Boarding Schools.
(Please see relevant rec at the bottom of this post)

- Schitt's Creek episode guide type thing by thingswithwings.
I keep trying with Schitt's Creek and bailing for embarrassment squick, but maybe this will be helpful to others?

- The Pyrex Glass Controversy That Just Won't Die at Gizmodo
I have my nonna's pyrex from the sixties and seventies and it is precious to me for this reason. (Among other reasons.)


Thursday is for Recs even though it's Friday here
I guess my theme is unexpected crossovers that work really well?

For King and Country by killalla (Harold Finch/John Reese, Teen)
The crossover here is Person of Interest/Lord Darcy Series - Randall Grant. As far as I can tell (and I'm sure someone on my flist will know more) the Lord Darcy Mysteries is an contemporary alternate history where the Plantagenets survive and also there is magic? I don't know more than that, and this fic works, because it's all iddy hand kissing and fealty swearing and THAT IS GOOD YES.

of course it's beastly when anybody dies by suitablyskippy, (Gwendoline Lacey, general)
The crossover here is Malory Towers/Death Note, where Darling Gwendoline finds the notebook. This is dark and messed up, and Gwendoline is exactly as awful as you'd expect with the power of life and death in her hands.

Brain report:
It goes up tiddly up up, it goes down tiddly down down. But it goes up? I guess that's good. I'm back to two sessions a week with my trainer and I think it's giving me a mood boost, but with every mood boost comes a kind of mood flop. I wake up, I feel good and optimistic for a few hours, then it feels like the ground has dropped out from under me and I wonder what the point is to existence.

It's one year since 60% of Australia voted to let me get married. I am surprised at how bitter I am about the whole fucking thing. Every time I see my straight friends on facebook congratulating themselves on being so openminded, I want to cry. I mean, in that twelve months I didn't get married. I weaned myself off the extra antidepressant I had to start taking so I wouldn't have panic attacks in public during the debate. Fuck off, fuck off, fuck off. (And down tiddly down down...)

Okay. Up. Go up, brain. There are lots of good things in my life. I have a big bang to post at the end of the month! I'm 22K into this year's NaNo! I have lots of lovely wool to work with! It's okay. I can manage this.


Garden report:
Tomatoes went in the beds on Cup Day (the first Tuesday in November) as is traditionally recommended by old gardners who know things. We've got three from Bunnings (big box hardware): Grosse Lise, mini Roma truss and Nonna's Favourite. And from seed I've got Green Zebra and Red Pear in the beds. In the greenhouse there's Orange Sunrise Bumblebee (this is too many adjectives for a tomato, IJS), valentines, and Wapsipinicon Peach which is apparently a fuzzy tomato. (Not sure if want? But could not resist trying to grow it.)

Cucumbers: Lebanese and Crystal Apple. Zucchini: Blackjack and Costata Romanesco. Climbing beans: Purple King, European and Northern. Peas: purple and yakimono giant. (The giant peas really are huge. Fingertip to wrist in length.) I've optimistically started eggplants - Long Purples, which I call Lebanese - and put lots of dynamic lifter on this time but they've been stalled at the two-leaf stage and I think I really can't grow eggplant which is one of life's cruel ironies.

Is that everything? Lime and Genovese basil... Some other rando tomato leftovers from years past that I can't remember. Oh, purple spring onions, but they're still at the skinny chive-looking stage. Celery is finishing up. Broccoletti is getting lots of brockles. Spinach has been slumbering all through winter, sadly, but is now starting to get leafy.


Linkspam:
History
- I think this comes via jenett? Folklorist shares the untold story of Australian fortune teller, Mary Barrell
I find this fascinating because of my long-languishing YA Melbourne based Victorian-era paranormal novel. I love all these gradually disappearing stories of Australia's occult history.

Politics and Reproductive Health
Via goodbyebird, The California Sunday Magazine: A secret network of women is working outside the law and the medical establishment to provide safe, cheap home abortions.
Interesting but very explicit - it talks medication, equipment, training for providing grass roots abortion.


Recs
Fic rec of great love from the Person of Interest Big Bang:
Just One Stray Match (41961 words) by loveandthetruth, livenudebigfoot
Chapters: 14/14
Fandom: Person of Interest (TV)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Lionel Fusco/John Reese
Characters: Lionel Fusco, John Reese, Harold Finch, Sameen Shaw, Root | Samantha Groves
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Firewatch Fusion, Cabin Fic, Wilderness, Hiking Porn
Summary:

1989. Lionel Fusco doesn't belong in the woods in general or the Shoshone National Forest in particular. But he doesn't need to be a good fire lookout. He just needs a place to hide.

Unfortunately for him, he's been found.

---
It's an AU set well before the series, and it's a fusion with Firewatch, a mystery video game where you play someone living in one of those firewatch cabins in the forest looking out for brushfires. It's so good. It's loyalty kink and examining who you really are when you're outside your comfort zone. It's an ode to Fusco and his utter goodness (which as a dirty cop can be problematic.) It's a love song to National Parks and hiking and living wild in isolated places.

If you're not familiar with the fandoms, I'd still rec it, since it takes place long before we get to know the characters from the show, and you don't need much canon info. Think of it as a story about a disheartened dirty cop who takes a summer job he's completely unsuited for, and falls for a mysterious and traumatised stranger living wild in the forest.

(Bearing in mind the week that California has had, if you're unhappy reading about fire or fire damage, this one probably isn't for you.)

tl;dr, it's the kind of fic that makes you pick up a fandom - I've got the Firewatch game in my wishlist on Steam for the next time it goes on special.
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More recs:
- Fanart - No I in Team - by goss. Beautiful, beautiful Daredevil and Ironman art for marvel_bang. Just - when can I see this on a comicbook cover pls? Pls.

- XVII by phoxinus. Tarot fanart for Watership Down in the style of the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot. It's beautiful and full of symbolism and very apt. Of course Hyzenthlay is the Star. Of course. I second everyone saying they'd love a deck in this theme.

- Singing Again at Seven Bells by selden, from the Original Works Exchange. I'd say "Lady pirate mermaid femslash" and that would ordinarily be enough for me, but there's so much more going on in this fic. There's boarding school backstory and there's historical pirate world building and there's... so much. It's so good. Nhhgggnh.


Other Fandom Joy
-This Metafilter post: Please rec me your fabulous fanfiction
Take a trip down memory lane or find some new faves

- Femslash Kink 18! The Annual Femslash Kink Meme 2018 is Coming!
Prompting opens soon.

- at navaan, Spicy Advent, a porn advent calendar.
All the slots are filled (snerk) but the collection is open for submission (snerk snerk) and as Advent progresses, navaan will post the links. (I think? I think this is how it works. It sounds like fun.)

Non-Fandom Joy
- At Mashable: If you want to explore the Australian bush as a sleepy wombat, 'Paperbark' is the game is for you.
I cannot wait for this game, it looks so pretty!!

- From the ABC, A sleeping quokka in the Rottnest Island settlement.
Everything quokkas do is adorable.

- Monterey Bay Aquarium Builds Life-Sized Blue Whale Art Installation Made from Discarded Single-Use Plastic to Raise Awareness About Ocean Pollution.
It's a very pretty whale, too.

- Also from the ABC, Warrnambool's popular wombat mural a happy accident.
This is such a country town thing - artist goes to his local bridge to do a trial of chalks on concrete thinking it will just wash away in the next rains. Council worker sees wonderful mural and realises that it's just in chalk, so quickly seals it in place. Presto! Permanent mural!!

- From Eyewatch Warrnambool's facebook, Why did the duck cross the road?
Obligatory 'police stop the traffic for ducklings' video. Interestingly, this is just near the old McDonalds that got turned into a funeral parlour. (Must make for some interesting ghosts, I think.)

- via spindle_ella, the first episode of Wellington Paranormal: Wellington Paranormal S01E01 - Demon Girl.
This show is amazing. Just. Yeah. Amazing.

In conclusion, my NaNo progres:

I had pho for lunch yesterday and I will do the same today. It has a fuckton of ginger in it and I have a streaming cold so hopefully it will help. Yesterday, David Bowie came on while I was eating. ETA: Omg so much ginger. So much chilli. *fans face*

I have been quiet! But here and reading and also writing. Australia is (maybe) having a postal vote to determine if we will (finally) have same sex marriage. You'd think that would be a good thing, but the campaign for No is utterly vomitous. Like, I get up in the morning, casually read about how my relationship is the gateway to legalising bestiality, then get on with my job. As you do. And I know there are bigger and more life-endangering crises happening around the world, but that's a nasty and heavy stone to for me carry around. It has been leaving me very wordless at the end of each day.

It is also making me quite tense. AS YOU CAN FREAKING IMAGINE. But there's a stupid platform game where Tony Abbott appears and shoots lasers from his eyes. It's cheap. But it made me laugh: Going Postal

I can tell from my linkspam collection that I went into silent survival mode around the time of the Charlottesville attacks.

( Activism/Disaster recovery links )
There's also a fandom auction comm started: harvey_fanaid


( Science Links. For Science! )

Craft
- Aviator cat hat (Paid pattern, but super cute.)

- Via boing boing, How to make a good lighting rig with a hamburger box and a flashlight

- Knitters wanted as War Memorial plans to unveil handmade poppies display (Also crocheters!)

Joy
- Westeros: trailer for spoof Thrones spinoff set in the 21st century
Via boing boing, this trailer is seriously fun and I would watch the crap out of this show.

- shitduosays. (Shit Duolingo Says)
I am so pleased that it's not just Italian that throws out some really weird stuff. (Italian Duolingo is really obsessed with death.)

- via umadoshi, Black Widow and Elektra fight (or at least their stunt doubles do, and it's AWESOME.)

- there's a Steve/Bucky exchange starting up: stevebucky_exchange.

( Fic recs: Person of Interest, The Penumbra, MCU, Jessica Jones/Hannibal )

Stay safe, people. If you're in a flood-risk area, I am thinking of you and hoping you are high and dry.

If you're an Aussie and you're suffering the onslaught of homophobia that is the media right now, please look after yourself. Remember self-care. Remember you don't have to interact with the garbage that is being spouted in your face. You are beautiful, and valuable and belong here in the world.

I got two fics for the Demi Lovato music video, Confident, and omg, yay!

This is the source material, for anyone who wants to check it out: Demi Lovato - Confident.

Actually, I got three fics, because of issues with fandom tagging - someone kindly wrote me a pre-Yuletide drabble last week, which I totally meant to link but everything fell aside in the mess of MY CAT GOT BITTEN BY A SNAKE drama:

This is a whip-smart weaving of mythologies into a needling little story that kicks the video into gear and sets up some good consequences for the actions of the male character involved. And fistbump for someone else who believes that a drabble is one hundred words, also.
They punish whosoever has sworn a false oath (100 words) by keerawa
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Confident - Demi Lovato (Music Video)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Woman (Demi Lovato), Woman (Michelle Rodriguez)
Additional Tags: Unwrangled Fandom Drabble Challenge, Drabble, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Alternate Universe - Greek Mythology, Pre-Yuletide
Summary:

We had a deal.

Short and bitter and bone-dry, this one is filled with clever, cyber-punkish world building, and bitterness for the things that they've lost to the system that caught them. This has a kind of Wolverine-esque vibe to it, with lost memories and military undercurrents that fits really well. (I've always liked Michelle Rodriguez for a female Wolverine, myself, so it chimes extra right for me on that point.)
A Perfect Disguise Above (1181 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Confident - Demi Lovato (Music Video)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Woman (Demi Lovato), Woman (Michelle Rodriguez)
Additional Tags: Amnesia, Road Trips
Summary:

If names were so important, she'd have remembered hers.

OMFG SOMEONE WROTE WEREWOLF FIC FOR THIS VIDEO. IF YOU LIKE LADIES AND YOU LIKE WEREWOLVES READ THIS FIC NOW. NOW.

Just shut and go read this incredibly hot, incredibly intense femslash werewolf fic about two amazing women who got fucked over by the system, where one looks after the other and there is snuggling and wolves and loyalty and they're going to make it all right.

Just go read it.
Oh, That Curse I Cannot Lift (5168 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Confident - Demi Lovato (Music Video)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Woman (Demi Lovato)/Woman (Michelle Rodriguez)
Characters: Woman (Michelle Rodriguez), Woman (Demi Lovato)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, First Time Shifting, Pack Building, Outdoor Sex, Oral Sex, Yuletide Treat
Summary:

There’s silver bullets in Demi’s belt, a silver core to the metal band around her throat. Michelle wonders if she knows, if she can smell the similarities between them.

And for myself, I've had a lovely comment from my recipient, so I'm very happy and relieved that it has all gone well. Happy Yuletide all around. Now to dive into the archive!

I want to talk about Person of Interest, but I think netgirl_y2k covered it really well: here. (Spoilers for 5.10)

( No, actually I do have more to say. Spoilers for 5.10 and 5.11 )

To that end, I've signed up for heroinebigbang, which has another round starting now.

ETA: While I type this, I am listening to lilacsigil school our software company on not having a no-gender option in our dispensing software. ("No, it's Federal law. You have to have it.") She is the awesome.