Cal Leandros (Prompt # 92 - Dead Like Me) Breakfast of Ninjas
Dec. 13th, 2025 11:18 amAuthor:
Fandom: Cal Leandros
Author's note: In a perfect world, we would all treat one another with kindness and respect, our pets would live as long as we do, and Niko would never have cut that glorious long blond fall of his hair.
Characters: Cal, Niko
Rating: PG13
Warning(s): Language, first person pov (Cal's)
Word count: 180
Disclaimer: Characters are the property of Rob Thurman, et al. This drabble/fic was written for fun, not for profit.
Written for:
Summary: Cal has to choke down something…healthy.
Breakfast of Ninjas
Challenge #480: Amnesty 48
Dec. 13th, 2025 05:14 pmThis week's challenge is:
This is our forty-eighth Amnesty challenge - every tenth challenge will be an Amnesty. Every tenth Amnesty will last two weeks!
What does this mean? Simply put, all previous challenges are now re-opened; write for any of them you want, and as many as you want.
Here's the list: New, Under the Influence, Wind, An Unreasonable Expectation, Pebbles, Heroic Failures, Whisper, Trouble In Mind, Halloween, Tough Choices, Relax, Fight or Flight, Seal, In The Doghouse, Decorations, Christmas Eve, Hope, Thank-You Notes, Cat, Peace Of Mind, Candlelight, Love Is In The Air, Alone, Just Friends, Mascot, Some Assembly Required, Arch, A Change In The Weather, Spring, Easter Eggs, Allergies, The Sky's The Limit, Birds, It Could Be Worse, Dabble, What Are You Complaining About Now?, Fruit, Sweet Summer Lovin', Twinkle, When The Sun Goes Down, Carnival, When There's Nobody Around, Holiday/Vacation, Growing Older But Not Up, Laughter, Free As The Wind, Awkward, If I Were You, Schedule, After All This Time, Nightfall, Love Is Blind, Travel, Fun And Games, Things That Go Bump In The Night, Jump, The Best Laid Plans..., Unbelievable, Long Way Back, Faith, How Did We Get Here?, Blue, Only Human, David Bowie Song Titles, Starstruck, Laying The Blame, Clear, Herbs And Spices, Waiting, There's Always Tomorrow, Anticipation, Mind Over Matter, Wonder, Do The Right Thing, Sneeze, One Of These Days, Early, Better Luck Next Time, Glass, Every Once In A While, Nervous, Old Enough To Know Better, Underwater, All Or Nothing, Hungry, Look Out, Space, A Chance Encounter, Nostalgia, In A Week Or Two, Coast, In The Moonlight, Shameless, Caught In The Act, Vain, Over The Hill, Torn, Nothing To See, Autumn / Fall, Imaginary Friends, Cold, Scene Of The Crime, Loud, Make Up Your Mind, Silver, What Are You Doing?, More, A Better Idea, Fireworks, Seeking Shelter, Numbers, Deep Down, Familiar, Just The Way You Are, Romance, Slip Of The Tongue, Tired, Right Or Wrong, Slinky, I've Got You, Elephant, Are You Ready?, Murder, On The Other Hand, Sleepy, A Long Time Ago, Memory, Where There's A Will, Fast, One More Day, Bake, End Of The Road, Gesture, Love Or Lust, Poke, Speak Of The Devil, Welcome, Not A Hero, Guilty, Late In The Day, Storm, Lie To Me, Dance, Thought I'd Seen Everything, Invisible, Friends And Neighbours, Spooky, In The Aftermath, Vibrate, Because You Love Me, Grey, Back To Front, Ride, Christmas Songs, Magic, Work Like A Dog, Exuberant, Long Lost Friend, Real, The State I'm In, Chemistry, You're The One, Hamper, Silence Is Golden, River, Good Advice, Warm, Out Of My Mind, Garden, Winding Down, Sound, Count On Me, Touch, Under These Conditions, Need, Hole In The Ground, Paradise, A Good Reason, Grope, Climbing The Walls, Visitor, Weather Warning, Believe, Having A Blast, Rash, The Last To Know, Park, Watch Your Step, Velvet, Dramatic Pause, Eyes, You Owe Me, Jelly / Jello, Trick Or Treat, Flirt, Push The Button, Tears, Nobody Gets Hurt, Freeze, Bad Habits, Needles, Making A Fresh Start, Weekend, In The Jungle, Shake, Cabin Fever, Darkness, Another Lonely Night, Speed, Just Getting Started, Restless, The Wrong Key, Precarious, Do Something!, Knot, Walking On Eggshells, Quiet, Try To Remember, Haywire, No Strings Attached, Jukebox, Far From Home, Whistle, Living It Up, Headache, Used To Be Mine, Last, Hot Summer Night, Yawn, Once In A While, Book, Too Many, Hide, Where Were You?, Pocket, Down The Road, Slide, Two Of A Kind, Genius, Dark And Stormy Night, Haunt/Haunted, Take It Off, Light, Good News, Ocean, The Holiday Season, Winter, Christmas Day, Celebration, In Another Life, Snuggle, Up To Something, Fine, In The Post, Birthday, Under The Weather, Catch, Kiss And Tell, Useful, Practice Makes Perfect, Apology, Kindness Of Strangers, Roll / Rolling, Soap And Water, Idiot, The Hard Way, Cling, Staying Home, Umbrella, Breaking The Rules, Key, Demons And Angels, Heatwave, Fun In The Sun, Someday, You Know Me, Plant, Into The Unknown, Fire, Out Of Sight, Squirrel, Nothing To Do, Alibi, Shattered Glass, Twist, Fright Night, Pumpkin, Dream Of You, Wood, Get Behind Me, Undone, Long Time Gone, Cosy, Warning Labels, Listen, Things Change, Explore, It's About Time, Order, Same Old Story, Chocolate, Wrapped Up In..., Kneel, In Too Deep, Run, Close Your Eyes, Homegrown, Take This With You, Ferret, Quality Time, Historic, Days Like This, Tail, Pass It On, Sweet, Love Who You Love, Parade, In The Shelter, Explode, Leave That Alone, Thunder, Take A Chance, Hand, Don't You Know?, Thread, Burning Bridges, Island, Come Monday, Survive, I Can Explain, Rain, Almost Home, Moon, Tell The Truth, Grind, That's Not Mine, Inspire, Nothing To Lose, Shopping, Have We Got Everything?, Feast, Turn It Up, Sleepless, I'm Alright, Massage, Driving Home, Wall / Walls, Taken By Surprise, Bone, Hard Times, Radio, Is It Just Me?, Buns, Under The Table, Detour, Because Of You, Swing, Here We Go Again, Change, Out Of Control, Single, On The Loose, Down, I'm Trying, Rock, Hold On, Revenge, Out Of Order, Worthless, Give Me Time, Leather, Use Your Imagination, Fancy, The Other Side, Overtime, I Can't Dance, Burn, Money Isn't Everything, Candy, Shame About That, Drop, Not That Different, Wild, See If I Care, Pretend, I Was There, Party, Travelling Light, Water, Someone Like You, Bright, Everyone's A Critic, Mud, The Walk Back, Admit, Up All Night, Mine, It's My Job, Quarrel, Long Way Down, Fantastic, No Big Deal, Gone, In The Dark, Ready, Up To You, Ripple, Over You, Liberty, Stay With Me, Flower, Tangled Up, Waltz, Going To Pot, Shuffle, Where Was I, Control, Have Mercy, Away, Painting The Town, Time, One Step Closer, Rough, I Know That, Lonely, Rocky Road, Hurt, On My Mind, Sunset, Lock And Key, Smoke, To The End,
Reminder of Rules
Entries should be 100 or 200 words exactly, excluding titles and headers. Triple drabbles are now also allowed.
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.
Have fun!
(no subject)
Dec. 13th, 2025 09:54 amLike, I have a 2oz bottle each of Bulgari's "Man in Black" and Rabanne's "Invictus Victory". I'm never going to get through those. They're going to follow me to the end of the earth. Hell, I'm still working on the 2oz bottle of Yves Saint Laurent's "L'homme" that I bought in grad school. (I still quite like it; past!me had great taste.)
And the only reason I picked up the 2oz of those first two is because a 10ml wasn't available. I'd love to take either of them along when I travel, but I'm not hauling those big bottles around. And there's something satisfying about finishing off a small bottle, y'know?
It's not a big deal or anything, I just wish the universe catered to me!
FAKE Double Drabble: Huge
Dec. 13th, 2025 04:59 pmTitle: Huge
Fandom: FAKE
Author:
Characters: Bikky, Ryo.
Rating: G
Setting: Early in the manga.
Summary: Ryo takes Bikky to the American Museum of Natural History.
Written Using: The dw100 prompt ‘Behemoth’.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Wolf
Dec. 13th, 2025 11:20 am
Click here to go see the bonus panel!
Hovertext:
By contrast, everyone always trusted the wolf that cried human.
Today's News:
Doctor Who Drabble: Idyllic
Dec. 13th, 2025 04:47 pmTitle: Idyllic
Author:
Characters: Fifteenth Doctor.
Rating: G
Written For: Challenge 983: ‘Creek / Creak’ at
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: It’s a beautiful spot, but the Doctor has no one to share it with.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Doctor Who, or the characters.
Double Drabble: Chaos
Dec. 13th, 2025 04:37 pmTitle: Chaos
Author:
Characters: Ianto, Tosh, Gwen.
Rating: PG
Written For: Challenge 895: Future, at
Spoilers: After End of Days.
Summary: Ianto was only out for an hour or so.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
A/N: Double drabble.
Pump Fiction
Dec. 13th, 2025 04:00 pmRead Pump Fiction
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Truck Driver: "Why aren't you pumping my gas right now?!"
Me: "Dude, this is my car."
Truck Driver: "Okay, but you work here, so stop being lazy and pump my f****** gas!"
Read Pump Fiction
Dessert Or Meltdown
Dec. 13th, 2025 03:30 pmRead Dessert Or Meltdown

Mom: "Dad, how can you even think about ice cream after all that food!"
Grandpa: "There's always, always, ALWAYS room for ice cream. See. It melts so it fits in between the cracks!"
Read Dessert Or Meltdown
(no subject)
Dec. 13th, 2025 10:41 amAs a book, Paris in Ruins has a bit of a tricky task. Its argument is that the miserable events in Paris of 1870-71 -- double siege, brutal political violence, leftists and political reformers who'd hoped for the end of the Glittering and Civilized but Ultimately Authoritarian Napoleon III Empire getting their wish in the most monkey's paw fashion imaginable -- had a lasting psychological impact on the artists who would end up forming the Impressionist movement that expressed itself through their art. Certainly true! Hard to imagine it wouldn't! But in order to tell this story it has to spend half the book just explaining the Siege and the Commune, and the problem is that although the Siege and the Commune certainly impacted the artists, the artists didn't really have much impact on the Siege and the Commune ... so reading the 25-50% section of the book is like, 'okay! so, you have to remember, the vast majority of the people in Paris right now were working class and starving and experiencing miserable conditions, which really sets the stage for what comes next! and what about Berthe Morisot and Edouard Manet, our protagonists? well, they were not working class. but they were in Paris, and not having a good time, and depressed!' and then the 50-75% section is like 'well, now the working class in Paris were furious, and here's all the things that happened about that! and what about Berthe Morisot and Edouard Manet, our protagonists? well, they were not in Paris any more at this point. But they were still not having a good time and still depressed!'
Sieges and plagues are the parts of history that scare me the most and so of course I am always finding myself compelled to read about them; also, I really appreciate history that engages with the relationship between art and the surrounding political and cultural phenomena that shapes and is shaped by it. So I appreciated this book very much even though I don't think it quite succeeds at this task, in large part because there is just so much to say in explaining The Siege and The Commune that it struggles sometimes to keep it focused through its chosen lens. But I did learn a lot, if sometimes somewhat separately, about both the Impressionists and the sociopolitical environment of France in the back half of the 19th century, and I am glad to have done so. I feel like I have a moderate understanding of dramatic French upheavals of the 1860s-80s now, to add to my moderate understanding of French upheavals in the 1780s-90s (the Revolution era) and my moderate understanding of French upheavals in the 1830s-40s (the Les Mis era) which only leaves me about six or seven more decades in between to try and comprehend.
Rec-cember Day 11: The Doomsday Books series by KJ Charles
Dec. 13th, 2025 05:02 pmSo, I've already told you, as far as I'm concerned, KJ Charles is the queen of queer historical romance. My second-favourite book series of hers is the Doomsday Books Series, and in particular the first instalment, * The Secret Lives of Country Gentlmen*. Set in Georgian England, in the remote area known for smuggling called Romney Marsh, it focuses on the improbable love affair between a baronet and the head of a famous local smuggling family. Except my description doesn't do it justice at all. The synopsis on GoodReads is not bad. This has a tremendous sense of place, two flawed main characters who experience actual emotional growth, real high-stakes and problems, and lots of plot. Also, as someone who loves the English language with all her heart, I found the use of the local Kent dialect so interesting (no worries, if I got it all as a non-native speaker, anyone will). The sequel, A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing A Scoundrel, set in the same place, 15 years later and is about a minor character of the first book who gets to have his own romance with an earl and solves a mystery that was left unresolved in the first book. It's a lovely book too, I just love the two MCs for the previous book more.
Hearts Alive! by SpaceJackalope. 2.3K. Gen. Set two years after the first book. Fifteen-year-old Luke Doomsday asks Joss for advice about feelings and guys, because he's fallen hopelessly, embarrassingly in love for the first time...with Gareth. This is adorable and so in character. Poor Luke. Being fifteen sucks. There's also a podfic available!
Hearts Alive by innie. I haven't accidentally copied the same link twice, it's a different story, this is just a very popular Kentish exclamation in the books. :D 1.3K. Joss/Gareth, explicit. Joss gets his hands on Gareth The language and the character voices are perfect, it totally reads as a vignette from canon.
Jonathan's Regards by L_Monster. 8K words. Luke/Lord Corvin, explicit. This could totally be a short story bridging a gap in the canon we know of (i.e. when Luke was worked as a secreterary for Lord Corvin). Terrifically in character and hot.
The Pitt
IIRC, last time I recced a Mel/Frank story where Frank had issues and didn't treat Mel well. More in that vein, is this story be a better boyfriend than you by KH_Rogers. Mel/Shen. 31 K words. That’s what they’ll say, in the end: Dr. John Shen swooped Mel up, out of Langdon’s grasp. Good for him. Good for her, finally fucking higher on the food chain. Or, John asks Mel out on a date mid-Langdon turmoil. Mel/Shen wasn't even on my radar, before this fic, but I gave the story a chance because the author is that good...and man, I'm glad I did. KH_Rogers hasa fully fleshed-out version of Shen and he is adorable. Not to mention he doesn't come with all the baggage Langdon has. So, in this story Langdon is a bit of a bastard, if this interpretation sounds like something you can't bear, steer clear, please. However, you should keep an open mind and just read this.
Nominations Opening Soon!
Dec. 13th, 2025 10:02 amThe nomination window will be a little longer this year because approvals will be slower on some days, so nominations will open December 17, 12:01 AM EST.
(no subject)
Dec. 13th, 2025 08:35 amYesterday was a day of shoveling the 'rents out a bit, mailing packages, ordering a holiday pie, and picking up my first 3D printed request from the library. It will need some trimming (okay a lot of trimming!) before I even know if it'll work, but it's a conversion head for an HG GINN, to make it into Elijah's GINN. I did in fact tell boycritter that we needed to run to the bookie joint so I could get a little head. It was also their book sale weekend and I ended up with a couple of books, a few CDs, and a half-sized binder of clear-pages that will work great for model decal storage.
The weather was awful midweek. Just absolute snowpocalypse for a couple of days, and the worst was that it warmed up and then the temperature dropped like a rock, so everything is now frozen hell. It's supposed to warm up again next week but idk how much that'll help. I think I burned a lot of my ability to can just driving from place to place. (Also did some untoward things to my shoulders while working under the dash of an old Mustang.)
Really the only interesting thing from my week was a small brightly colored tank, lol. I did have a couple more of my Black Friday purchases finally roll in and I think I've officially crossed the space-to-store-stuff rubicon. ^^; Time to get building.
Also time to catch up on my inbox.
Birds, Bees, And BS
Dec. 13th, 2025 02:30 pmRead Birds, Bees, And BS

One day, a chap, aged in his fifties, who was watching the bees flying around, decided to enlighten me about something.
Man: "I’ll bet you never get women standing here. You know, women are genetically predisposed to throw themselves to the ground when things fly over them."
Read Birds, Bees, And BS
We Only Serve Food, Not Hate
Dec. 13th, 2025 02:00 pmRead We Only Serve Food, Not Hate
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Me: "I don’t appreciate racism. You can cash out with your server, and you’re not welcome back."
She looks at me like I've just spat in her face.
Customer: "…"
Me: "Have a good day."
(no subject)
Dec. 13th, 2025 01:45 pmI’m a self-checkout attendant in a grocery store. One day we have a horrible combination of factors—we’re understaffed, a massive heat wave has just started, and we have a much higher than average volume of customers. Everyone is hot, sticky, cranky, and impatient. Somehow, by some miracle, my manager is able to send me on […]
When Cheering Reaches Critical Mass
Dec. 13th, 2025 01:30 pmRead When Cheering Reaches Critical Mass
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My Grandpa is a retired physics professor, and he was quite good at it, too. One of his favorite complaints that he got on the physics book he published was "Physics is supposed to be hard, and he's making it too easy!"
(no subject)
Dec. 13th, 2025 12:45 pmI’m going in for what the doctors would call “routine surgery” but what I would call “panic central.” A little context: my partner and I are notorious for making weird noises at each other. My partner> So, how are you feeling right now? Me, in a very high-pitched, nasal voice> EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! My partner> …well, to […]
Exactly what we needed
Dec. 13th, 2025 05:33 amWe've all heard it a million times: baking is precise and cooking is loose. Cooking is jazz, baking is classical. Cooking has room to improvise, but with baking you have to follow the recipe to the letter.
This is, of course, nonsense. For one thing, you can't control every variable every time. If baking required everything to be utterly precise, it would never work, because air temperature, pressure, and humidity all vary; you have to be able to work around those major variables. If it was true, you'd never see experienced bread bakers frown and throw another handful (or three) into the recipe. And most importantly, if this was true......how would we ever get new baked goods?
I think this is a mistake we make too often when we're thinking about bringing light into dark times for each other. We think of it has having to be precise and perfect for it to work. If we're not winning every struggle, we must be doing something wrong and should just quit. If we can't come up with the perfect phrasing to offer comfort to worried or grieving friends and neighbors, why even try? Maybe tomorrow we'll be warm and witty and precisely right. Or someone else can do it. Surely someone else has the right answer, and we can just use that.
So yeah, the lussekatter--you know what day it is--rose despite the plummeting temperature (and with it the plummeting humidity, oh physics why do you do us like this). They rose and rose and rose. Friends, they are mammoths. They are lusselejon this year. I forgot the egg glaze--I told you last year that I shouldn't mention that remembering it was unusual, and ope, it was an omen, I did not put egg wash on. They are still great. They are still amazing. What they are not--what they don't have to be--is perfect.
Last week one of my friends wrote to me to say that she'd made calzones but they'd turned out denser than usual. And you know what I thought? I thought, "Ooh, her family got calzones, I should make calzones one of these days!" And not in the "I'd do it better than that loser" way, either. Just: yay homemade calzones, what a treat. I watched her doing it. I remembered that I can do it too. Dense or not. Egg washed or not. Perfect or--let's be real, perfect isn't available, what we have is imperfect, and it turns out that's what we need. Lighting one imperfect candle from another, all down the chain of us, until the light returns.
2024: https://marissalingen.com/blog/?p=4078
2023: https://marissalingen.com/blog/?p=3875
2022: https://marissalingen.com/blog/?p=3654
2021: https://marissalingen.com/blog/?p=3366
2020: https://marissalingen.com/blog/?p=2953
2019: https://marissalingen.com/blog/?p=2654
2018: https://marissalingen.com/blog/?p=2376
2017: https://marissalingen.com/blog/?p=1995
2016: https://marissalingen.com/blog/?p=1566
2015: https://marissalingen.com/blog/?p=1141
2014: https://marissalingen.com/blog/?p=659
2013: https://marissalingen.com/blog/?p=260
2012: https://mrissa.dreamwidth.org/840172.html
2011: https://mrissa.dreamwidth.org/796053.html
2010: https://mrissa.dreamwidth.org/749157.html
2009: https://mrissa.dreamwidth.org/686911.html
2008: https://mrissa.dreamwidth.org/594595.html
2007: https://mrissa.dreamwidth.org/2007/12/12/ and https://mrissa.dreamwidth.org/502729.html
2006: https://mrissa.dreamwidth.org/380798.html — the post that started it all! Lots more about the process and my own personal lussekatt philosophy here!...oh hey, this is the twentieth year I've posted about this. Huh. Huh. Well, isn't that a thing.
(no subject)
Dec. 13th, 2025 11:00 amWhen I was a student midwife working on delivery suite when my mentor and I received a lady who had been transferred from the antenatal ward in labour having been induced 10 days post term (standard in my particular area). She had been contracting for around 36 hours on and off and had been sent […]
Conbini groceries and Chigasaki beach
Dec. 13th, 2025 07:08 pmSo I've privately called my downstairs store the world's shittiest Lawson's, but I owe it an apology. Today I checked out several other conbini, and mine is unique in being able to pass for a grocery store.
( Read more... )
On to today's explorations in Chigasaki: ( Read more... )
Yes, I just discovered I can embed Flickr images and Google Maps.
The Day in Spikedluv (Friday, Dec 12)
Dec. 13th, 2025 06:05 amI also got Alaska!niece’s box packed up and went to the post office to mail it! Then I stopped at mom’s to drop off the shopping and GCs I’d picked up for her, as I knew she was eager to get some into the mail.
Sister S was at mom’s and while I was there L called because Addilyn wanted to talk to her. (She tattled about seeing me at BK. *g*) They’re currently down at CHOP for Addi to have a bladder scan to make sure it continues to work well. Apparently lack of sensation in that area is common with the spinal injury where she has it from the spina bifida. All good thoughts welcome.
I did three loads of laundry, hand-washed dishes, emptied the dishwasher, went for a couple walks with Pip and the dogs, cut up chicken for the dogs' meals, hit the bank drive-thru, scooped kitty litter, and showered. I baked chicken breasts with a honey mustard sauce for supper.
I watched an HGTV program, wrote out a couple more cards, and wrote ~400 more words on my second
Temps started out at 17.6(F) and reached 32.7. There was more wind, so once again the walking trails were drifted in a bit and it made for difficult walking.
Mom Update:
Mom was doing okay when I saw her. ( more back here )
(no subject)
Dec. 13th, 2025 10:00 amI wrote [this story https://notalwaysright.com/uh-can-i-interest-anyone-in-a-corn-dog-while-they-read-this/287499/] and it seems like it received quite a lot of attention, so I will now talk about my worst flatmate experience in terms of tidyness. They were a boy and a girl, both international students, both Political Science students, the boy had a good grasp of Italian and the girl […]