eglantiere | Reading

We’ve reached the beginning of July—the halfway point of the year—and so I wanted to do a check-in on my progress towards my 10 in 2025 gaming goal for this year.

( beneath the cut )

As for what’s next… I haven’t actually done much gaming since I beat Star Ocean 01, oops. And Battleship is starting soon, so I don’t foresee too much gaming in the near future… That being said, I feel like I’m in the mood for visual novels, so maybe Evermore soon? ~~Alternatively, I could replay Cinderella Phenomenon again and then once again fail to pick up Evermore afterwards.~~ Though if I do play Evermore, I will have one game crossed off from each category on this list, which would feel satisfying... I’ve also been craving the short indie game experience, since it’s been a minute since I last played one of those, so I might take a short break from this list to play one or two of those instead. We’ll see!

oursin

Is it OK to read Infinite Jest in public? Why the internet hates ‘performative reading’

You know, I was completely unaware that 'The Internet' hated upon this (whatever it is) until I came across this article and I think we are probably well into a realm similar to journo constructing a phenomenon on the basis of '6 people I spoke to in the wine-bar last week'.

Or maybe I just don't do TikTok and am missing this, but in my experience, few forms of social media are entire monoliths, what?

Why shouldn't people read in public? They're not doing it AT other people, honestly.

Can't help thinking that those who get aerated at people reading on public transport or while sitting quietly in a restaurant or coffee-shop are very likely those who think you should 'rawdog' long planeflights, sad gits.

Okay, these days I am pretty much always reading on ereader when out and about, so nobody can see what I'm reading. But back in the day I have read a lot of things that I daresay some miserable so-and-so would have considered 'performative', like Remembrance of Things Past on the Tube.

And among other things Marx and Rousseau on the train when I was commuting in from suburban Surrey.

Which phase of my life I was reminded of by a review headed 'A darker side of Lawrence Durrell' - I was not aware that there was any other side, actually - I habitually got in the same compartment of the same train each morning and there was the same young man making his way veeeeery slowwwwly through the volumes of The Alexandria Quartet. Months and months of Balthazar.

profiterole_reads

The Old Guard 2 was awesome, but Netflix'd better greenlight a third movie right freaking now. I'm reading the comics, but that doesn't help with the cliffhanger because the plot of the movies is different.

The first film was already full of hot people, and they went and added Henry Golding and Uma Thurman to the cast. ^^

There's major m/m, as well as subtext f/f (canon f/f in the comics).

sakuramod posting in

yuletide

sakuraexchange has two pinch hits still in need of creators! If you might be able to fill one of these requests by the current due date (July 11 at 11:59 PM UTC (7:59 PM EDT), or negotiable), please comment on the pinch hit post with your AO3 name and the number of the pinch hit you'd like to claim.

The minimum requirements are 1000 words for fic, or clean lineart on unlined paper for art.

Available pinch hits (click through for details):

PH 4 - 爆上戦隊ブンブンジャー | Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger (TV), 魔法つかいプリキュア！ | Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure! | Mahou Girls PreCure!, 仮面ライダーギーツ | Kamen Rider Geats, Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne | Phantom-Thief Jeanne (manga), Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne | Phantom-Thief Jeanne (Anime)

PH 16 - 終ノ空 remake | Tsui no Sora Remake, Tsukihime (Visual Novel & Anime), Kara no Kyoukai | The Garden of Sinners

turps

We ran out of yoghurt this morning, so instead of our usual Sunday morning, be there for opening, visit to Company Shop we went earlier. Only to be quickly reminded of previous vows to myself not to shop there on a Saturday at prime time. So many people in a relatively small place, and they didn't even have any good bargains to show for it. Well, not until we were at the checkout, when one of the ladies we know came out pushing four crates of frozen Magnum lollies. She stopped to talk to James, he asked how much the lollies were, and when told 6 for £1 he asked if he could have six. So, she left the crates next to us, which was great at we got our lollies. But not so great that we almost got trampled by all the other people zooming in for the goodies.

The h/c exchange stories have gone live and I need to check out the archive and see what's there.

It was a Bodhisitting day yesterday, the first long one I've had for a while. It also included watching the new kittens, who have now changed names because it turns out one of the girls is actually a boy. So, Millie and Mollie are now Aslan and Panda. They are adorable though, and spent the day causing havoc, then sleeping, causing more havoc, sleeping, the pattern went on.

That's them with Miah, who now thinks she's a mama cat. Megan meanwhile, just growls and keeps out of the way

Everything in the garden is growing nicely, and I've been picking fresh strawberries and raspberries already. Turns out the courgette I've been carefully tending in the greenhouse is actually a cucumber, though. How that happened I really don't know as I can't remember planting cucumber seeds. That also means I have no courgette plants at all this year.

I watched the season finale of Taskmaster and was pleased with the winner. I've enjoyed this season a lot, and of course was eager to see who is appearing next season. Out of everyone on there I only really know Maisie Adam, but that's the case most times, and I usually end up enjoying them all by the end.

We're off to the theatre tonight to see Hamilton, so I should get off my backside and get changed soon. Normally we'd go for a meal beforehand but it's just drinks tonight, still, I'm looking forward to the show.

feurioo posting in

tv_talk

Assortment of black and white speech bubbles

Welcome to the weekly roundup post! What are you watching this week? What are you excited about?

oursin

Happy birthday,

stillsostrange!

sholio

hurtcomfortex released today! I happened to be driving a backcountry highway with no cell service at the time (coming home from Mom Things), but it was lovely to find my gifts waiting for me when I got back.

Hold a Candle To (MASH, 3400 wds, gen) delivered some lovely Charles drug withdrawal h/c with teamy affection, and A Way Out (Biggles, 4400 wds, gen) let me roll around in excellent Biggles & von Stalhein enemies-era reluctant cooperation and sympathy. Truly a lovely haul!

mekare

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rydra_wong

A whole world of games not playable on Mac has opened up to me, and it's Steam summer sale time!

Please rec me your favourite games, bearing in mind that I have very limited reflexes/co-ordination.

(I'm not completely ruling out games involving them, but the threshold for entry has to be very very low. I am currently enjoying Refunct because it allows me to try some simple platforming in a very chill and pleasant environment with no time pressure and no penalties for taking several hundred tries to get a jump.)

princessofgeeks

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hurtcomfortexmod posting in

hurtcomfortex

Everyone can now enjoy the Hurt/Comfort 2025 Collection!

Please go, read and view, comment and kudos! The collection will stay open for treats.

If there is an issue with your gift please e-mail us at hurtcomfortexmod@gmail.com right away.

And thank you to everyone who participated and made this year possible, especially our pinch hitters!

maiorova_feed

https://maiorova.livejournal.com/842179.html

Тётя Галя врывается прямо с поезда, — бусы звенят, серьги переливаются, каблуки стучат, — под влюбленно-ужасающимся взглядом бабушки садится за накрытый к приезду стол, принимает первую за день, а будет их десять-двенадцать, чашечку крепчайшего чёрного кофе, лихо закуривает сигарету и заявляет:
— Боже! Как я ненавижу Ленина!

https://maiorova.livejournal.com/842179.html

mekare

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maevedarcy posting in

recthething

In preparation for @hextechtrioweek, the blog is hosting #FanRecFriday to spread the our love for MelJayVik and I decided to join with a post of my own.

Medium: art, fanfic

Fandom: Arcane

Relationship: Mel/Jayce/Viktor

See the rec list at my journal.

umadoshi

At the start of the month I entertained the fleeting thought of trying to post every day in July, especially with

sunshine_revival (in which I have in no way participated) going on, but. Well. *gestures at current date* And as we all know, something-something-only-perfect-results-matter, etc. etc. etc.

But here. It's Friday. The world is terrifying, but at least for this moment the sun is out. I spent most of my workday in a style guide meeting, which was genuinely pretty fun; tonight we're seeing Ginny and Kas because this week it's better for them than our usual Saturday hangout.

Tomorrow the (very) wee farmers' market that's only a few blocks away is getting underway for the season. I have ambitions of actually rolling out of bed and walking over in hopes of strawberries, even though tomorrow and Sunday are also Eevee community day in Pokemon Go, so I'm also hoping to leave the house those afternoons. Leaving the house twice in one day is not exactly a thing that happens often, and as a result, the prospect of it is exhausting. ^^; But here's hoping!

There's been zero doubt for a long time now that my only actual investment in Pokemon Go is the pursuit of shinies, and community days are the best chance to get shinies of a given critter, and Eevee, see, has EIGHT possible evolutions, so if there's any faint hope of ever having a full set of shinies of those, well, it's this weekend.

(I can't remember if I've said here that this is a crystalized perfect demonstration of why it's really, really good that I don't gamble. I'm usually pleased when I catch a new-to-me Pokemon, but it's pretty minor. But rather than setting the game aside, since it mostly hasn't resulted in me actually getting outside and walking much more than I had been, the hope of catching a shiny critter keeps me opening it back up. Nobody get me into slot machines, okay? [That sounds facetious, but I mean it very seriously.])

That's all I've got right now. Stay well, friends.

Current Mood: pensive

oursin

What I read

Finished The Islands of Sorrow and it is a bit slight, definitely one for the Simon Raven completist I would say - a number of the tales feel like outtakes from the later novels.

Decided not for me: Someone You Can Build a Nest In.

Started Val McDermid, The Grave Tattoo (2006), a non-series mystery. Alas, I was not grabbed - in terms of present-day people encounter Historical Mystery, this did not ping my buttons - a) could not quite believe that a woman studying at a somewhat grotty-sounding post-92 uni in an unglam part of London would have even considered doing a PhD on Wordsworth (do people anywhere even do this anymore) let alone be publishing a book on him b)a histmyst involving Daffodil Boy and a not so much entirely lost but *concealed unpublished in The Archives* manuscript of Epic Poem, cannot be doing with. (Suspect foul libel upon generations of archivists at Dove Cottage, just saying.) Gave up.

Read in anticipation of book group next week, Anthony Powell, The Kindly Ones (1962).

Margery Sharp, Britannia Mews (1946) (query, was there around then a subgenre of books doing Victoria to now via single person or family?). Not a top Sharp, and I am not sure whether she is doing an early instance of Ace Representation, or just a Stunning Example of Victorian Womanhood (who is, credit is due, no mimsy).

Because I discovered it was Quite A Long Time since I had last read it, Helen Wright, A Matter of Oaths (1988).

Also finished first book for essay review, v good.

Finally came down to a price I consider eligible, JD Robb, Bonded in Death (In Death #60) (2025). (We think there were points where she could have done with a Brit-picker.)

On the go

Barbara Hambly, Murder in the Trembling Lands (Benjamin January #21) (2025). (Am now earwormed by 'The Battle of New Orleans' which was in the pop charts in my youth.)

Up next

Very probably, Zen Cho, Behind Frenemy Lines, which I had forgotten was just about due.

***

O Peter Bradshaw, nevairr evairr change:

David Cronenberg’s new film is a contorted sphinx without a secret, an eroticised necrophiliac meditation on grief, longing and loss that returns this director to his now very familiar Ballardian fetishes.

chez_jae

The Glass is Always Greener (Den of Antiquity, #16)

The Glass is Always Greener by Tamar Myers

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

View all my reviews

Used my holiday to finish reading The Glass is Always Greener by Tamar Myers. It’s the 16th (and final) in her “Den of Antiquity” series of humorous cozies. The main character is Abigail Timberlake Washburn, owner of Den of Antiquity.

Abby reluctantly agrees to accompany her friend, Rob, to a “going away” party hosted by his eccentric Aunt Jerry, who recently had a reading done that revealed her date of death. Jerry uses the opportunity to impugn her entire greedy family. Even Abby gets drawn into the drama when she tries to defend Rob. After Jerry is found dead in the walk-in freezer, Abby finds herself a suspect in the woman’s death. All she wants to do is go home, but she can’t leave town while she’s a person of interest. For that reason, Abby decides to do some sleuthing on her own. She’s aided by her Mama and friends CJ and Wynnell, who came to lend support. What Abby learns is that Rob’s family are all mad, and any one of them could have done the deed.

To begin with, I have several books in this series, and Amazon led me to believe it was the FIRST one, not the last one. Had I known that, I would have read it, oh, I don’t know...LAST. Grr. I have read a few others in the series; they are all delightfully funny and madcap—very entertaining. Abby’s observations are hilarious, and although some of the characters’ behavior is completely over the top, it just adds to the amusement factor. I did not care for how this ended, neither the book/story itself nor the series as a whole.

Favorite lines:
♦ In the stunned silence that followed, one could have heard a frog fart.
♦ It is no accident, I think, that the first syllable of the word hormones is what it is.
♦ “Those rolls make my tongue want to come out and slap my head silly.”
♦ “A hunch from a woman is worth two facts from a man.”
♦ “Biddies, please. Oops, I meant to say ladies.” // “The hell you did,” the biddies said in unison.
♦ Trust me, being surprised from behind by another person is even worse when it happens in a cemetery.
♦ “For now is not forever.”

I’d love to give this 3.5 stars. Hm. The rushed ending knocks it down to three.

Current Mood: mellow
Current Music: "Close My Eyes Forever" ~ Ozzy Osborn & Lita Ford

rionaleonhart

whooooo wants DISTRESSING SNOWGRAVE FANFICTION

For the moment, this fic is exclusively available on my blog! I'm holding off on posting this to AO3 until tomorrow, because a) AO3 is currently sorting out some bookmarking issues, and b) I suspect Americans are going to be Fourth of Julying instead of reading fanfiction. Consider this a sneak preview!

Title: who you are and what you want
Fandom: Deltarune
Rating: 14
Pairing: Kris/Noelle
Wordcount: 1,400
Summary: The soul can't take any action that hasn't crossed Kris's mind, apparently. So why does it keep treating Noelle like this?
Warnings: Spoilers for the Snowgrave route in Deltarune, up to chapter four. Intrusive thoughts. Deals heavily with consent issues, although there's no sexual contact in this fic.

( who you are and what you want )

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: pleased

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eglantiere

my fics

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Reading

311 | 10 in 2025: mid-year check-in

I don't think there is any 'The Internet' in this sense, really

The Old Guard 2

Post-Deadline Pinch Hits for Sakura Exchange (Due July 11)

(no subject)

Speak Up Saturday

(no subject)

Hurt/Comfort Exchange

Waffle recipe (savoury)

I am now the proud owner of a secondhand Steam deck! Rec me games!

for the record

Collection is Open!

Воспоминание о тёте Гале

Art: Alanna (Wheel of Time)

FanRecFriday: #hextechtrio edition

Idle Friday post that turned out to be half about Pokemon Go

Wednesday will be taking place on Friday this week

Book 68, 2025

Fanfiction: who you are and what you want (Deltarune, Kris/Noelle)

Murderbot S1Ep9

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