Saturday 13 September 2025
Sep. 13th, 2025 05:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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doctor_who_sonicDo you have a Doctor Who community or a journal that we are not currently linking to? Leave a note in the comments and we'll add you to the watchlist (doctor_watch).
Editor's note: Because of the high posting volume and the quantity of information linked in each newsletter,doctor_who_sonic will no longer link fanfiction that does not have a header. For an example of what a "good" fanfic header is, see the user info. Spoiler warnings are also greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Off-DW News
Blogtor Who's Friday Video of the Day is the UNIT case file for the Zygons from Doctor Who's YouTube channel
Doctor Who News: Issue 621 of Doctor Who Magazine
Blogtor Who: The cast of Ghost Light to reunite at Utopia
Blogtor Who's Saturday Video of the Day is Big Finish's trailer for their audio Snare from The Ninth Doctor Adventures
Blogtor Who reviews Big Finish’s The Thirteenth Doctor Adventures: The Return of the Doctor
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Communities and Challenges
dw100: Challenge #1058: refine
Discussion and Miscellany
purplecat with a postcard with an image from from Smith and Jones
Fanfiction
Completed
Stuck bybadly_knitted [Three, Jo | G]
Recommendations
paranoidangel recommends the fic sparking joy by ![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
TechnicolorRevel [TARDIS, Nyssa, Bill, Charley | General Audiences]
If you were not linked, and would like to be, contact us in the comments with further information and your link.
doctor_watch).Editor's note: Because of the high posting volume and the quantity of information linked in each newsletter,
doctor_who_sonic will no longer link fanfiction that does not have a header. For an example of what a "good" fanfic header is, see the user info. Spoiler warnings are also greatly appreciated. Thank you!Off-DW News
Blogtor Who's Friday Video of the Day is the UNIT case file for the Zygons from Doctor Who's YouTube channel
Doctor Who News: Issue 621 of Doctor Who Magazine
Blogtor Who: The cast of Ghost Light to reunite at Utopia
Blogtor Who's Saturday Video of the Day is Big Finish's trailer for their audio Snare from The Ninth Doctor Adventures
Blogtor Who reviews Big Finish’s The Thirteenth Doctor Adventures: The Return of the Doctor
(News from
doctorwhonews_feed and blogtorwho_feed, among others.)Communities and Challenges
dw100: Challenge #1058: refineDiscussion and Miscellany
purplecat with a postcard with an image from from Smith and JonesFanfiction
Completed
Stuck by
badly_knitted [Three, Jo | G]Recommendations
paranoidangel recommends the fic sparking joy by If you were not linked, and would like to be, contact us in the comments with further information and your link.
Slo-Mo Rewatch: Guardian episode 1, part 2
Sep. 13th, 2025 11:36 pmtrobadora posting in sid_guardian
Hi, welcome to our second instalment of the Guardian drama Slo-Mo Rewatch! Join us to watch half an episode a week (at your leisure) and then come and chat about it here in comments. Or you can just jump into the comments without rewatching, of course!
Here is last week's half-episode. On to the second half!
Episode 1, from 22:28
Summary: Guo Changcheng is having a day! After being dangled from a window and falling, now he fails at tailing Shen Wei and Li Qian, takes a lost grandma home, and promptly runs into a shadowy attacker! But action hero Chu Shuzhi comes to the rescue. Shen Wei studies Zhao Yunlan's file, and we get our first YOHE flashback. Zhao Yunlan, who has concluded the attacker mistook Lu Ruomei for Li Qian, tails Li Qian and has another intense encounter with Professor Shen. The Shadow Man attacks Li Qian at the university, but Shen Wei protects her - until he's thrown off the roof, just as the SID arrives. The team meets the Black-Cloaked Envoy for the first time.
Quote:
Zhao Yunlan: "Tell you the truth, I really don't know why, but from the moment I saw you, I've had this feeling like we've known each other a long time."
Shen Wei: "Who knows, maybe we really have met before."
Detail:
One of my favourite details in this half of the episode is the Envoy's very dramatic arrival on the rooftop - storm clouds and lightning and time stoppage and all. The best part about this is something a first-time viewer can't know - that this is clearly a choice on Shen Wei's part. He's looking to make an impression, hee! :D
Questions:
What's your favourite moment or line in this half of the episode? Anything you noticed that you'd completely forgotten about, or never noticed before? How literally do you take Shen Wei's "I've searched for you for 10,000 years"? What do you think Zhao Yunlan is thinking when Shen Wei just gives away that he knows about Dixingren? If you were on that rooftop when the Envoy took the Shadow Man away, would you speak up like Xiao-Guo? And if you're familiar with the novel, any thoughts about how this compares?
(These are all just conversation starters - feel free to answer all, some, or none, and to say as much or as little as you like! You don't have to be keeping up with the rewatch to join in!)
And here is our schedule - please do sign up to host a post if you can!
REVIEW: Doctor Who: The Return of the Doctor
Sep. 13th, 2025 09:00 pmblogtorwho_feedThe Return of the Doctor highlights Mandip Gill’s terrific performance as Yaz spirals into distrust and resentment
On the face of it, The Return of the Doctor is a hopelessly generic title. There must be dozens of Doctor Who episodes from that feature the Time Lord coming back to somewhere they’ve been before. Yet cases like this Return of the Doctor have actually been few and far between. Perhaps its closest cousin is 1966’s The Ark. There too, the TARDIS travellers have to confront the unintended long term consequences of their intervention.
We actually start with what would normally be the climax of an episode. The Doctor facing down an alien invasion of the planet Zaaria with witty put-downs, a device she’s cobbled together, and a steely warning that if the invaders fire, they did what happens next to themselves. Naturally, the plan goes a little bit terribly wrong; there’s some running; there’s some screaming. But it all comes together in the end, and the Doctor and Yaz sweep back into the TARDIS: next stop, everywhere.
Except… Yaz isn’t so sure. She’s not terribly happy they left their young local friend Talpa recovering in hospital and demands they slip forward a few weeks to check he makes a full recovery. Except one twist of the helmic regulator instead leaves them a decade into the future. There they find the Zaarians torn apart by civil strife. It’s mirrored by a tense friction between our two heroes over what’s happened.
The Thirteenth Doctor Adventures bounce effortlessly from zany comedy last time to raw character drama in Return of the Doctor, promising to be one of Big Finish’s most excitingly unpredictable ranges
This central conflict never quite convinces. To a great extent this is because there’s no real thread connecting the Doctor’s past actions to the violent aftermath. All the Zaarians agree on only one thing: it’s all the Time Lord’s fault, yet they’re very vague on exactly how. Yaz shares their resentment, and is quite savage in her criticism. But blaming the Doctor for not continually checking in on every planet she’s ever saved is pretty weak. Though the plot ultimately resolves these sort of questions, one side being so clearly more reasonable than the other means Blogtor never really became invested in their argument.
It does however present Mandip Gill with an opportunity to shine. If Vampire Weekend gave Jodie Whittaker free reign to bounce through your headphones at her goofy best, The Return of the Doctor plays the real human drama. The crowded TARDIS of the Thirteenth Doctor era on television meant Yaz was too often sidelined. In contrast, their Big Finish adventures are so far placing the Doctor and Yaz’ relationship front and centre. Gill portrays the young woman’s anger and frustration with a fiery intensity. She almost single handedly grounds the story’s more outlandish elements in real emotional weight.
New writer Roy Thomas-Howes packs all this emotional conflict into a rather standard slice of Big Finish plotting. All the same, it demonstrates the impressive range of this new strand of audio plays as they ping pong from frantic comedy to deeply personal character drama without missing a beat. With Whittaker and Gill showing themselves masters of their craft, it seems the Thirteenth Doctor Adventures really could go anywhere.
Doctor Who: The Return of the Doctor
Having saved the peaceful Zaarians from an evil alien threat, the Doctor and Yaz sail off to their next adventure. Only this time, Yaz wonders if they’re moving on, or running away.
Convincing a grudging Doctor to return to the planet, they are shocked to find the Zaarians in turmoil. What did the Doctor do? Why is the city in ruins? And what’s that voice in Yaz’s head…?
Doctor Who – The Thirteenth Doctor Adventures: The Return of the Doctor is now available to purchase for just £9.99 (as a digital download to own) or £11.99 (download to own + collector’s edition CD), exclusively here. Please note: the collector’s edition CD is strictly limited to 1,500 copies and will not be repressed.
The post REVIEW: Doctor Who: The Return of the Doctor appeared first on Blogtor Who.
Matching notes #2
Sep. 14th, 2025 08:22 ammodzilla posting in fffxThanks to the people I've heard back from!
I still need to hear from P and also from two other people - C and S. In one case I need some sign-up details and in another case unfortunately there is a cascading matching issue - so if your name starts with s and you (appear to) have one possible recipient, please check your email.
I still need to hear from P and also from two other people - C and S. In one case I need some sign-up details and in another case unfortunately there is a cascading matching issue - so if your name starts with s and you (appear to) have one possible recipient, please check your email.
Creators Revealed!
Sep. 13th, 2025 09:16 pmtentaclemod posting in raremaleslashexAll Creators have been revealed!
Thank you to all participants, and many many thanks to the pinch hitters for showing up again and again ❤︎ ❤︎ ❤︎ I hope you all had fun!
If you have urgent suggestions for improvement, feel free to comment on this post or write a mail to tentaclemod@gmail.com. Other questions and input are welcome as well!
Thank you to all participants, and many many thanks to the pinch hitters for showing up again and again ❤︎ ❤︎ ❤︎ I hope you all had fun!
If you have urgent suggestions for improvement, feel free to comment on this post or write a mail to tentaclemod@gmail.com. Other questions and input are welcome as well!
current stitching
Sep. 13th, 2025 10:50 amthistleingreyIt's time for Microsoft Voice Access!
A few days ago, I noticed that the roving from the spindle workshop had introduced very tiny critters to my active knitting projects, kept adjacent. Off they went to chill, one ziploc bag in the freezer and the rest waiting at the back of the fridge. That meant starting a different knitting project. I squelched my initial idea of fine-gauge, two-color brioche for a shawl (to use up certain yarn skeins) and chose the pattern from my Ravelry queue that scares me the most.
Yesterday I washed a swatch, the start of the first sleeve. I guess the designer pulled very tightly on his recently discontinued yarn, of a type that snaps if you look at it funny (BT Shelter). I'm using a yarn with slightly more heft, gained via the last of my in-kind shop samples, and I was able to have a second go at a sleeve on smaller needles ( before a minor accident )
A few days ago, I noticed that the roving from the spindle workshop had introduced very tiny critters to my active knitting projects, kept adjacent. Off they went to chill, one ziploc bag in the freezer and the rest waiting at the back of the fridge. That meant starting a different knitting project. I squelched my initial idea of fine-gauge, two-color brioche for a shawl (to use up certain yarn skeins) and chose the pattern from my Ravelry queue that scares me the most.
Yesterday I washed a swatch, the start of the first sleeve. I guess the designer pulled very tightly on his recently discontinued yarn, of a type that snaps if you look at it funny (BT Shelter). I'm using a yarn with slightly more heft, gained via the last of my in-kind shop samples, and I was able to have a second go at a sleeve on smaller needles ( before a minor accident )
Reading Backlog for August
Sep. 13th, 2025 09:51 ammuccamukk(The first of which I read in May, but it wasn't Hugo homework, so we're putting it here.)
Maybe this is a Story about Water by Jessica Wiebe Schafer
I posted one of these poems. Lovely collection reflecting on God, womanhood, family connections and connections to nature, and how they might all be the same. Local author I stumbled on in the library, which suggests I should randomly grab books from the library's poetry section more often. (Have I since done so? No, I have not!)
A Default World by Naomi Kanakia
Read this for queer book club, which I've been very bad at actually attending. Contemporary satire, I guess would be the easiest genre description.
A South-Asian trans woman ends up joining a San Francisco share house, which is full of bright young things, tech money, and hedonism. Our heroine is trying to figure out how to get someone to pay for the gender-affirming surgeries she desperately wants, but keeps getting sucked into whatever bullshit her housemates are on, namely planning a big kink party that's somehow for great justice.
Most of the book is about skewering the hypocrisies and double think embedded in the mostly white, mostly straight, mostly upper class twenty-somethings who want to think that their sex parties are going to bring about the liberation, but aren't really that interested in the day to day lives of actual real marginalised people. I would say this discordance is played up for effect, and that the space I've seen aren't quite that bad, but also SF is kind of its own beast, so I'd also believe it's not exaggerating reality. The core points certainly hit, though maybe got a little repetitive.
I had complicated feelings about the heroine, who loathes almost every other character almost as much as she loathes herself. It was admittedly difficult to spend that many pages with someone who's that crushed by dysphoria that much of the time. I did like how the book handled her getting sucked into the social scene, and how the tension kept ratcheting up in regards to whether she would make the moral choice or the self-interested one. I was very much rooting for her by the end, even if everyone in the book was kind of terrible.
Will keep an eye on this author.
The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin by Alison Goodman
Grabbed this off the library's seven-day read shelf, not realising it was the second book in a series. I would, if possible, read them in order, as this is very much a serial adventure situation, with the action of the second book directly following on the first. However, it did explain the events of the first well enough to follow along with what was happening, and it was fun on its own.
A pair of spinster sisters in Regency London deal with a variety of crises events, including someone trying to kidnap their house guest, a gentleman's society maybe murdering women, one of their would-be lovers being a highwayman while the other's a Bow Street Runner, and various knock on effects of the previous book. It was fun! I wouldn't say there's a lot more to it than hijinks, though it seemed to be trying to take on serious topics, but I enjoyed the hijinks. There's a scene later on in the book where five or six groups with competing interests are chasing each other around the countryside in the dark, which I always love.
It ends on a slight cliffhanger setting up the next book, which I'm not that invested in, but might read on a rainy day.
Red Boar's Baby by Lauren Esker
This stands alone, more or less, but if you enjoyed the lore from the previous books, you'll see it again here! We get the return of the highly-motivated koala, which made me very happy.
This outing, we get a road runner who's a SAR pilot for the National Parks Service fake dating a wild boar who's running the local shifter police department. (If you're new to this genre, they're shape shifters who can turn into animals, but primarily have human forms. This is not Zootopia.) Together, they have to deal with a probably-kidnapped baby, the probable kidnappers, mad science, and there only being one bed. This series pretty much always hits for me, and as usual it balances the action adventure/mystery plot with the romantic tension, and doesn't base either on silly misunderstandings or anyone carrying the idiot ball. I really liked the backstory to how the fake dating started out, and the barriers to the main couple getting together felt real. They were very sweet together, which helped. Also, there's a fantastic action scene towards the end of the book, that really played with most of the characters involved being shape shifters, and we got a bunch of new lore.
Really enjoyed this, looking forward to the next one.
JUSTICE FOR MATEO! (Who was not mentioned in this book, which is why he needs justice.)
Maybe this is a Story about Water by Jessica Wiebe Schafer
I posted one of these poems. Lovely collection reflecting on God, womanhood, family connections and connections to nature, and how they might all be the same. Local author I stumbled on in the library, which suggests I should randomly grab books from the library's poetry section more often. (Have I since done so? No, I have not!)
A Default World by Naomi KanakiaRead this for queer book club, which I've been very bad at actually attending. Contemporary satire, I guess would be the easiest genre description.
A South-Asian trans woman ends up joining a San Francisco share house, which is full of bright young things, tech money, and hedonism. Our heroine is trying to figure out how to get someone to pay for the gender-affirming surgeries she desperately wants, but keeps getting sucked into whatever bullshit her housemates are on, namely planning a big kink party that's somehow for great justice.
Most of the book is about skewering the hypocrisies and double think embedded in the mostly white, mostly straight, mostly upper class twenty-somethings who want to think that their sex parties are going to bring about the liberation, but aren't really that interested in the day to day lives of actual real marginalised people. I would say this discordance is played up for effect, and that the space I've seen aren't quite that bad, but also SF is kind of its own beast, so I'd also believe it's not exaggerating reality. The core points certainly hit, though maybe got a little repetitive.
I had complicated feelings about the heroine, who loathes almost every other character almost as much as she loathes herself. It was admittedly difficult to spend that many pages with someone who's that crushed by dysphoria that much of the time. I did like how the book handled her getting sucked into the social scene, and how the tension kept ratcheting up in regards to whether she would make the moral choice or the self-interested one. I was very much rooting for her by the end, even if everyone in the book was kind of terrible.
Will keep an eye on this author.
The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin by Alison Goodman
Grabbed this off the library's seven-day read shelf, not realising it was the second book in a series. I would, if possible, read them in order, as this is very much a serial adventure situation, with the action of the second book directly following on the first. However, it did explain the events of the first well enough to follow along with what was happening, and it was fun on its own.
A pair of spinster sisters in Regency London deal with a variety of crises events, including someone trying to kidnap their house guest, a gentleman's society maybe murdering women, one of their would-be lovers being a highwayman while the other's a Bow Street Runner, and various knock on effects of the previous book. It was fun! I wouldn't say there's a lot more to it than hijinks, though it seemed to be trying to take on serious topics, but I enjoyed the hijinks. There's a scene later on in the book where five or six groups with competing interests are chasing each other around the countryside in the dark, which I always love.
It ends on a slight cliffhanger setting up the next book, which I'm not that invested in, but might read on a rainy day.
Red Boar's Baby by Lauren Esker
This stands alone, more or less, but if you enjoyed the lore from the previous books, you'll see it again here! We get the return of the highly-motivated koala, which made me very happy.
This outing, we get a road runner who's a SAR pilot for the National Parks Service fake dating a wild boar who's running the local shifter police department. (If you're new to this genre, they're shape shifters who can turn into animals, but primarily have human forms. This is not Zootopia.) Together, they have to deal with a probably-kidnapped baby, the probable kidnappers, mad science, and there only being one bed. This series pretty much always hits for me, and as usual it balances the action adventure/mystery plot with the romantic tension, and doesn't base either on silly misunderstandings or anyone carrying the idiot ball. I really liked the backstory to how the fake dating started out, and the barriers to the main couple getting together felt real. They were very sweet together, which helped. Also, there's a fantastic action scene towards the end of the book, that really played with most of the characters involved being shape shifters, and we got a bunch of new lore.
Really enjoyed this, looking forward to the next one.
JUSTICE FOR MATEO! (Who was not mentioned in this book, which is why he needs justice.)
FAKE Triple Drabble: The Real Thing
Sep. 13th, 2025 05:37 pmbadly_knittedTitle: The Real Thing
Fandom: FAKE
Author:
badly_knittedCharacters: Dee, Ryo.
Rating: PG-13
Setting: Vol. 7, Act 19.
Summary: Dee can’t help wondering if this is a dream.
Written For: Challenge 489: Amnesty 81 at
fan_flashworks, using Challenge 426: Dash.Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
A/N: Triple drabble.
Tags:
Doctor Who Drabble: Stuck
Sep. 13th, 2025 05:25 pmbadly_knittedTitle: Stuck
Author:
badly_knittedCharacters: Third Doctor, Jo Grant.
Rating: G
Written For: Challenge 952: ‘Push’ at
dw100.Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Mud is one thing the English countryside has an abundance of.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Doctor Who, or the characters.
( Stuck... )
The Wheelhouse - Week 9
Sep. 13th, 2025 10:46 amclauderainsrm posting in therealljidolYou've got questions - I've got answers!
Maybe. For some things. Let's try this! Some from emails and some from a thread I was directed to so that I could know the sort of things people are curious about.
On this particular vote:
- Will the intersection totals count as your total votes, or just your individual totals. The individual votes.
- How will bye weeks count toward the total. Bye weeks are 0 votes. I considered doing the "average" but that wasn't anywhere in the original requests for this structure. Trying to maintain that integrity to the request.
- Doesn't that make it lopsided for people with bigger friends list? How would that work in a regular season if we did it that way? IMO, it wouldn't. But as a one time thing, it's interesting, which is why it ended up on the Wheel. :)
- Will you provide a list so we all know how many votes we have in total? Maybe. Full disclosure, I haven't even done that for myself yet. I have no idea how far "ahead" or "behind" anyone is going into this week! I need to do that this weekend!
The Wheel:
Is the wheel going to ever allow people to come back into the game?
There are *counts* 5 different scenarios allowing for different variations of people coming back into the game. 6 depending on how a specific special power is used. :) Sooner or later, odds are the wheel is going to land on one of them, and probably soon.
Do you remove options from the Wheel once they are used?
Most of them. There are a couple in there specifically designed to come up again. But they haven't come up yet.
What happens if we get down to the Final 5 but we haven't hit the "come back into the game option?" We proceed to the end game. That's the nature of the Wheel. Like I said, it could last a week and it could go on for the rest of our natural, and unnatural lives.
The Killer(s):
How many Killers are left in the game? There is absolutely no way I'm going to tell you that. :)
That said, the pieces are all there. You know we started with between 1-3. The original(s) don't even know how many we started with, or who the others are! I also tell you when there is an empty vial found, and when there isn't. Which considering you also know that the Killers have two choices: Recruit or Poison. If no vial is found, you know what they picked! You can do the math from there, and I've seen some people are doing that.
- Was a vial found this week? I can now reveal, yes. Yes there was an empty vial found.
- What is the criteria for who for an Accusation? What is the criteria for the Killer(s) in who they choose to poison? I'm not you. I can't decide what your criteria is. I assume that everyone has their own strategy for both of those things. For the former, I'd say it should be "Who do you think a Killer is" for the poisoning/recruiting - who would be the best choice for further whatever agenda you have in the game!
- If a Killer is eliminated during a poll, will you know? Yes. You will know.
- How does the Accusation work? Is it majority vote? Yes. The majority of you have to agree. If the Killer is Person X and 40% of you think it's them, but 60% think it's Person Y, you are going to officially accuse Person Y. The Killer(s) work on the same principle. They have to reach majority on two issues: Recruit or Poison and then who to either recruit or poison. In the event of a tie that cannot be broken, the Wheel would decide between the choices.
- How does the antidote work? Does the person taking it know if it works or not? Yes. Or rather the person who wins it knows. If they drink it themselves, they know and if they give it to someone else, they know that as well.... and so will the person drinking it.
- How does it taste? It has a bit of a minty lemon aftertaste that once you get used to is quite pleasant. :)
Participation
- Yeah. It's been down. Some of that is the small numbers we have and some of that is that I'm not driving engagement like I normally would be doing. Haven't been in a good place in awhile. I need to be doing more of this and less of *points the rest of the world*
How are you Gary?
- Not great. Some days MUCH better than others. Proud of Celena who has been accepted to every single grad school she's applied to so far. Cynthia's birthday is on Monday, so that's weird not going all in on it... and my birthday is coming up at the end of the month and really not sure how I want to celebrate it. If anyone wants to send me massive amounts of cash though, I'll figure something out! :D (Note to self - find people with massive amounts of cash, who want to give it to you!!! No, I won't send them to you!!!)
How are YOU?
I can't answer that. You go ahead and answer it below.
Ask any other questions you've been having below and I'll try my best to answer them.
Maybe. For some things. Let's try this! Some from emails and some from a thread I was directed to so that I could know the sort of things people are curious about.
On this particular vote:
- Will the intersection totals count as your total votes, or just your individual totals. The individual votes.
- How will bye weeks count toward the total. Bye weeks are 0 votes. I considered doing the "average" but that wasn't anywhere in the original requests for this structure. Trying to maintain that integrity to the request.
- Doesn't that make it lopsided for people with bigger friends list? How would that work in a regular season if we did it that way? IMO, it wouldn't. But as a one time thing, it's interesting, which is why it ended up on the Wheel. :)
- Will you provide a list so we all know how many votes we have in total? Maybe. Full disclosure, I haven't even done that for myself yet. I have no idea how far "ahead" or "behind" anyone is going into this week! I need to do that this weekend!
The Wheel:
Is the wheel going to ever allow people to come back into the game?
There are *counts* 5 different scenarios allowing for different variations of people coming back into the game. 6 depending on how a specific special power is used. :) Sooner or later, odds are the wheel is going to land on one of them, and probably soon.
Do you remove options from the Wheel once they are used?
Most of them. There are a couple in there specifically designed to come up again. But they haven't come up yet.
What happens if we get down to the Final 5 but we haven't hit the "come back into the game option?" We proceed to the end game. That's the nature of the Wheel. Like I said, it could last a week and it could go on for the rest of our natural, and unnatural lives.
The Killer(s):
How many Killers are left in the game? There is absolutely no way I'm going to tell you that. :)
That said, the pieces are all there. You know we started with between 1-3. The original(s) don't even know how many we started with, or who the others are! I also tell you when there is an empty vial found, and when there isn't. Which considering you also know that the Killers have two choices: Recruit or Poison. If no vial is found, you know what they picked! You can do the math from there, and I've seen some people are doing that.
- Was a vial found this week? I can now reveal, yes. Yes there was an empty vial found.
- What is the criteria for who for an Accusation? What is the criteria for the Killer(s) in who they choose to poison? I'm not you. I can't decide what your criteria is. I assume that everyone has their own strategy for both of those things. For the former, I'd say it should be "Who do you think a Killer is" for the poisoning/recruiting - who would be the best choice for further whatever agenda you have in the game!
- If a Killer is eliminated during a poll, will you know? Yes. You will know.
- How does the Accusation work? Is it majority vote? Yes. The majority of you have to agree. If the Killer is Person X and 40% of you think it's them, but 60% think it's Person Y, you are going to officially accuse Person Y. The Killer(s) work on the same principle. They have to reach majority on two issues: Recruit or Poison and then who to either recruit or poison. In the event of a tie that cannot be broken, the Wheel would decide between the choices.
- How does the antidote work? Does the person taking it know if it works or not? Yes. Or rather the person who wins it knows. If they drink it themselves, they know and if they give it to someone else, they know that as well.... and so will the person drinking it.
- How does it taste? It has a bit of a minty lemon aftertaste that once you get used to is quite pleasant. :)
Participation
- Yeah. It's been down. Some of that is the small numbers we have and some of that is that I'm not driving engagement like I normally would be doing. Haven't been in a good place in awhile. I need to be doing more of this and less of *points the rest of the world*
How are you Gary?
- Not great. Some days MUCH better than others. Proud of Celena who has been accepted to every single grad school she's applied to so far. Cynthia's birthday is on Monday, so that's weird not going all in on it... and my birthday is coming up at the end of the month and really not sure how I want to celebrate it. If anyone wants to send me massive amounts of cash though, I'll figure something out! :D (Note to self - find people with massive amounts of cash, who want to give it to you!!! No, I won't send them to you!!!)
How are YOU?
I can't answer that. You go ahead and answer it below.
Ask any other questions you've been having below and I'll try my best to answer them.
Double Drabble: Meat Free
Sep. 13th, 2025 05:15 pmbadly_knittedTitle: Meat Free
Author:
badly_knittedCharacters: Ianto, Gwen, Rhys, Team.
Rating: PG
Written For: Challenge 882: Taste at
torchwood100.Spoilers: Countrycide.
Summary: Encountering cannibals affected the team for a long time.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
A/N: Double drabble.
( Meat Free... )
Tags:
now the night is coming to an end (the sun will rise and we will try again) (Beowulf)
Sep. 13th, 2025 05:54 pmsigyn_halja posting in iddyiddybangbangTitle: now the night is coming to an end (the sun will rise and we will try again)
Author: Halja
Fandom: Beowulf
Word Count: 22,429
Rating: M
Warnings: Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism
Summary: Twelve years. And now, at last...
Or, Beowulf's stay in Heorot, as seen through the eyes of Hrothgar's thyle.
Read on AO3
Author: Halja
Fandom: Beowulf
Word Count: 22,429
Rating: M
Warnings: Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism
Summary: Twelve years. And now, at last...
Or, Beowulf's stay in Heorot, as seen through the eyes of Hrothgar's thyle.
Read on AO3
2025 Nominations are open!
Sep. 13th, 2025 08:52 ameatdrinkmerrymod posting in eatdrinkmakemerryTag nominations are now open!
Please disambiguate all nominations. This means putting the fandom in parentheses after the relationship, e.g. Harold Finch/John Reese (Person of Interest).
You may nominate 1-20 relationships or solo characters in 1-10 fandoms. Please nominate solo characters as 1: Character; Gen relationships as Character A & Character B; and romantic or sexual relationships as Character A/Character B. Please avoid nominating under "All Media Types." (If "All Media Types" is the best option/common usage for your fandom, please comment to explain.)
We accept specific group nominations, e.g. Hatake Kakashi & Team Seven or Lelith Hesperax/Cult of Strife Bloodbrides. If you request group nominations, any two or more members of that group (creator's choice which ones!) will be considered to fulfill that request.
We accept original characters within fandoms, e.g. Original Ape Character (Planet of the Apes), Original Male Character/Leia Organa (Star Wars). If you do not state a gender, creators may create character(s) of any gender for that tag.
Please nominate Original Works under “Original Work” and be as specific as you’d like with the characters. Please state any relevant genders in the tag, e.g. Ice Cream Salesman/His Favorite Female Customer, or Original Male Character & Sentient Candy Bar. Original Work nominations with no gender specified in the tag may be filled with the gender(s) of the creator's choice.
RPF is allowed. All nominated RPF characters must be 18+ and famous in their own right (non-famous friends or family are not allowed). Real-life fascists, nazis, current political figures, and 20th-21st century persons famous as perpetrators or victims of violent crime will be rejected.
Crossovers are allowed. Please nominate those under "Crossover Fandom" and disambiguate accordingly, indicating the fandom of each character within the relationship: Galadriel (LotR - Tolkien)/Laios Touden (Dungeon Meshi).
For complex or interconnected fandoms (Star Wars, Marvel, DCU, etc.), nominate the fandom in the format that makes sense for you; e.g., if you're only interested in characters and situations from the Captain America movies, nominate "Captain America (Movies)" as your fandom. If you want to draw on the greater cast and timeline of the whole MCU, nominate "Marvel Cinematic Universe" as your fandom. Overlapping nominations (e.g., both "Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers (Captain America Movies)" and "Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers (MCU)") existing in the tagset are okay.
If any nominations require more clarification, queries will be posted to this comm during the nomination period.
Please disambiguate all nominations. This means putting the fandom in parentheses after the relationship, e.g. Harold Finch/John Reese (Person of Interest).
You may nominate 1-20 relationships or solo characters in 1-10 fandoms. Please nominate solo characters as 1: Character; Gen relationships as Character A & Character B; and romantic or sexual relationships as Character A/Character B. Please avoid nominating under "All Media Types." (If "All Media Types" is the best option/common usage for your fandom, please comment to explain.)
We accept specific group nominations, e.g. Hatake Kakashi & Team Seven or Lelith Hesperax/Cult of Strife Bloodbrides. If you request group nominations, any two or more members of that group (creator's choice which ones!) will be considered to fulfill that request.
We accept original characters within fandoms, e.g. Original Ape Character (Planet of the Apes), Original Male Character/Leia Organa (Star Wars). If you do not state a gender, creators may create character(s) of any gender for that tag.
Please nominate Original Works under “Original Work” and be as specific as you’d like with the characters. Please state any relevant genders in the tag, e.g. Ice Cream Salesman/His Favorite Female Customer, or Original Male Character & Sentient Candy Bar. Original Work nominations with no gender specified in the tag may be filled with the gender(s) of the creator's choice.
RPF is allowed. All nominated RPF characters must be 18+ and famous in their own right (non-famous friends or family are not allowed). Real-life fascists, nazis, current political figures, and 20th-21st century persons famous as perpetrators or victims of violent crime will be rejected.
Crossovers are allowed. Please nominate those under "Crossover Fandom" and disambiguate accordingly, indicating the fandom of each character within the relationship: Galadriel (LotR - Tolkien)/Laios Touden (Dungeon Meshi).
For complex or interconnected fandoms (Star Wars, Marvel, DCU, etc.), nominate the fandom in the format that makes sense for you; e.g., if you're only interested in characters and situations from the Captain America movies, nominate "Captain America (Movies)" as your fandom. If you want to draw on the greater cast and timeline of the whole MCU, nominate "Marvel Cinematic Universe" as your fandom. Overlapping nominations (e.g., both "Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers (Captain America Movies)" and "Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers (MCU)") existing in the tagset are okay.
If any nominations require more clarification, queries will be posted to this comm during the nomination period.
Rubbish
Sep. 13th, 2025 04:34 pmoursinSeem to have been seeing a cluster of things about litter, and picking it up, lately, what with this one Lake District: Family shouted at for picking up litter, and the thing I posted recently about the young woman who was snarking on the Canals and Rovers Trust about what she perceived as her singlehanded mission to declutter the local canal bank: "Elena might feel alone in tackling London's litter waste", and then this week's 'You Be The Judge' in the weekend Guardian is on a related theme:
Should my girlfriend stop picking up other people’s litter?
(She is at least throwing it away in a responsible fashion: I worry about the couple whose flat is being cluttered up with culinary appliances where one feels maybe the ones that aren't actually being used anymore could be rehomed via charity shops before they are buried under an avalanche of redundant ricecookers etc).
As far as litter and clutter goes, National Trust tears down Union flag from 180-year-old monument. Actually, carefully removed, and we think there are probably conservation issues involved: quote from NT 'We will assess whether any damage has been caused to the monument'. See also White horse checked for any damage caused by flag. We do not think respect and care for heritage is uppermost in the minds of people who do these jelly-bellied flagflapping gestures.
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Chips
Sep. 13th, 2025 11:20 amsmbc_comics_feed
Click here to go see the bonus panel!
Hovertext:
You can tell it's not real because no human would be that stupid.
Today's News:
Dear Trick or Treater:
Sep. 13th, 2025 04:41 pmelwinfortunaI'm elwinfortuna.
I'm so excited that you'll be creating something for me; I can't wait to see what you come up with! Thank you so much, I hope you have fun with my prompts and likes.
All prompts are optional and just there to serve as a jumping-off point for you. Feel free to combine prompts, including across fandoms. Take what you make in whatever direction seems best or come up with something I didn't prompt at all, I'll love it!
Treats are very welcome (and enabled on AO3), including past prompts from previous exchanges.
( General Likes )
( Art Likes )
( Shipping & Romance/Sex Likes )
( Do Not Wants )
Fandoms I've requested:
( Crossover Fandom )
( The Adventures of Tom Bombadil - J. R. R. Tolkien )
( 天官赐福 - 墨香铜臭 | Tiān Guān Cì Fú - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù )
( The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien )
( The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien )
( 山河令 | Word of Honor (TV 2021) )
( 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV) )
( 藏海传 | Legend of Zang Hai (TV) )
I'm so excited that you'll be creating something for me; I can't wait to see what you come up with! Thank you so much, I hope you have fun with my prompts and likes.
All prompts are optional and just there to serve as a jumping-off point for you. Feel free to combine prompts, including across fandoms. Take what you make in whatever direction seems best or come up with something I didn't prompt at all, I'll love it!
Treats are very welcome (and enabled on AO3), including past prompts from previous exchanges.
( General Likes )
( Art Likes )
( Shipping & Romance/Sex Likes )
( Do Not Wants )
Fandoms I've requested:
( Crossover Fandom )
( The Adventures of Tom Bombadil - J. R. R. Tolkien )
( 天官赐福 - 墨香铜臭 | Tiān Guān Cì Fú - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù )
( The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien )
( The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien )
( 山河令 | Word of Honor (TV 2021) )
( 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV) )
( 藏海传 | Legend of Zang Hai (TV) )
assorted Star Wars
Sep. 13th, 2025 11:18 ampauraqueRecently I have watched or rewatched several Star Wars. Here are my thoughts.
Andor season 2
( spoilers )
Rogue One
( spoilers )
Original Trilogy
( spoilers? I make fun of the movies a lot even though I like them. also cn: I ship Luke/Leia )
We plan to watch the prequel trilogy next. I saw The Phantom Menace in the theater and I think I watched like half of Attack of the Clones on TV, or maybe I'm just remembering the memes. It's gonna be a good time!
Andor season 2
( spoilers )
Rogue One
( spoilers )
Original Trilogy
( spoilers? I make fun of the movies a lot even though I like them. also cn: I ship Luke/Leia )
We plan to watch the prequel trilogy next. I saw The Phantom Menace in the theater and I think I watched like half of Attack of the Clones on TV, or maybe I'm just remembering the memes. It's gonna be a good time!
Sign-Ups are Opened!
Sep. 13th, 2025 09:10 pmflowing_river posting in aspecexSign ups are now opened and will close on September 20 at 10PM PST. Nominations will close on September 17 at 10PM PST. Please read the rules before signing up!
Ao3 Collection | Tagset
You must request and offer 1-10 fandoms with 1-10 relationships and/or solo characters per fandom. You must also request and offer at least 1 Aspec identity and 3-20 freeforms per request and offer. You will be allowed to request a fandom multiple times but this will not count as unique fandoms. You must request at least 3 unique fandoms for a guaranteed gift. If you are unsure if your requests qualify as 3 unique fandoms, feel free to reach out to me for confirmation.
All Do Not Wants (DNWs) must be in the optional details box in your ao3 sign-up to be enforceable. Any DNWs in a linked letter will not be enforced. All DNWs must be clearly labeled as “DNW(s)” or “Do Not Want(s)”. All DNWs must be reasonable, clear, and judgement-free. You cannot contradict your request with a DNW (e.g. DNWing Asexuality after requesting “Acespec Character”). Your DNWs cannot box in your creator (e.g. DNW everything except Holmes fainting). Any unreasonable/bad-faith DNW will not be enforced. If you don’t have any DNWs, feel free to mention that in your optional details!
Matching will be done on a minimum of 1 fandom, relationship/solo character, Aspec identity, and freeform. Please make sure you are matchable by the time sign-ups close.
If you have any questions, feel free to comment on this post or email us at aspecexmod@gmail.com!
Ao3 Collection | Tagset
You must request and offer 1-10 fandoms with 1-10 relationships and/or solo characters per fandom. You must also request and offer at least 1 Aspec identity and 3-20 freeforms per request and offer. You will be allowed to request a fandom multiple times but this will not count as unique fandoms. You must request at least 3 unique fandoms for a guaranteed gift. If you are unsure if your requests qualify as 3 unique fandoms, feel free to reach out to me for confirmation.
All Do Not Wants (DNWs) must be in the optional details box in your ao3 sign-up to be enforceable. Any DNWs in a linked letter will not be enforced. All DNWs must be clearly labeled as “DNW(s)” or “Do Not Want(s)”. All DNWs must be reasonable, clear, and judgement-free. You cannot contradict your request with a DNW (e.g. DNWing Asexuality after requesting “Acespec Character”). Your DNWs cannot box in your creator (e.g. DNW everything except Holmes fainting). Any unreasonable/bad-faith DNW will not be enforced. If you don’t have any DNWs, feel free to mention that in your optional details!
Matching will be done on a minimum of 1 fandom, relationship/solo character, Aspec identity, and freeform. Please make sure you are matchable by the time sign-ups close.
If you have any questions, feel free to comment on this post or email us at aspecexmod@gmail.com!
(no subject)
Sep. 13th, 2025 09:21 amskygiantsBroadly speaking, I liked Star Wars: The Mask of Fear, the first book in a planned trilogy of Star Wars Political Thrillers pitched as Andor Prequels, For Fans Of Andor.
This one is set right after the declaration of the Empire and is mostly about the separate plans that Bail Organa and Mon Mothma pursue in order to try and limit their government's whole-scale slide into fascism, with -- as we-the-readers of course know -- an inevitable lack of success. It is of course impossible not to feel the weight of Current Events on every page; the book came out in February '25 and so must have been complete in every respect before the 2024 elections, but boy, it doesn't feel like it. On the other hand, it's also impossible not to feel 2016 and Hillary Clinton looming large over the portrayal of Mon Mothma as the consummate politician who is very good at wrangling the process of government but whom nobody actually likes.
That said, as a character in her own right, I am very fond of Mon Mothma, the consummate politician who is very good at wrangling the process of government but whom nobody actually likes. With her genuine belief in the ideals of democracy and her practiced acceptance of the various ethical compromises that working within the system requires, she makes for a great sympathetic-grayscale political-thriller protagonist. I also like the portrayal of her marriage in this period as something that is, like, broadly functional! sometimes a source of support! always number three or four on her priority list which she never quite gets around to calling him to tell him she's back on planet after a secret mission before the plot sweeps her off in a new direction, oops, well, I guess he'll find out when she's been released from prison again!
Anyway, her main plot is about trying to get a bill passed in the Senate that will limit Palpatine's power as Emperor, which involves making various shady deals with various powerful factions; meanwhile, Bail Organa has a separate plot in which he's running around trying to EXPOSE the LIES about the JEDI because he thinks that once everyone knows the Jedi were massacred without cause, Palpatine will be toppled by public outrage immediately. Both of them think the other's plan is kind of stupid and also find the other kind of annoying at this time, which tbh I really enjoy. I love when people don't like each other for normal reasons and have to work together anyway. I also like the other main wedge between them, which is that both of them were briefly Politically Arrested right before the book begins, and by chance and charisma Bail Organa joked his way out of it and came out fine while Mon Mothma went through a harrowing and physically traumatic experience that has left her with lingering PTSD, and Mon Mothma knows this and Bail Organa doesn't and this colors all their choices throughout the book.
Bail Organa's plot is also sort of hitched onto a plot about an elderly Republic-turned-Imperial spymaster who's trying to find the agents she lost at the end of the war, and her spy protege who accidentally ends up infiltrating the Star Wars pro-Palpatine alt-right movement, both of which work pretty well as stories about people who find themselves sort of within a system as the system is changing underneath them.
And then there is the Saw plotline. This is my biggest disappointment in the book, is that the Saw plotline is not actually a Saw plotline; it's about a Separatist assassin who ends up temporarily teaming up with Saw for a bit as he tries to figure out who he should be assassinating now that the war is over, and we see Saw through his eyes, mostly pretty judgmentally. I do not object to other characters seeing Saw Gerrera pretty judgmentally, but it feels to me like a bit of a cop-out in a book that's pitched as 'how Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and Saw Gerrera face growing fascism and start down the paths that will eventually lead to the Rebel Alliance' to once again almost entirely avoid giving Saw a point of view to see his ideology from within. But Star Wars as franchise is consistently determined not to do that. Ah, well; maybe one of the later two books in this trilogy will have a meaty interiority-heavy Saw plotline and I'll eat my words.
(NB: I have not yet seen S2 of Andor and I do plan to do so at some point, please don't tell me anything about it!)
This one is set right after the declaration of the Empire and is mostly about the separate plans that Bail Organa and Mon Mothma pursue in order to try and limit their government's whole-scale slide into fascism, with -- as we-the-readers of course know -- an inevitable lack of success. It is of course impossible not to feel the weight of Current Events on every page; the book came out in February '25 and so must have been complete in every respect before the 2024 elections, but boy, it doesn't feel like it. On the other hand, it's also impossible not to feel 2016 and Hillary Clinton looming large over the portrayal of Mon Mothma as the consummate politician who is very good at wrangling the process of government but whom nobody actually likes.
That said, as a character in her own right, I am very fond of Mon Mothma, the consummate politician who is very good at wrangling the process of government but whom nobody actually likes. With her genuine belief in the ideals of democracy and her practiced acceptance of the various ethical compromises that working within the system requires, she makes for a great sympathetic-grayscale political-thriller protagonist. I also like the portrayal of her marriage in this period as something that is, like, broadly functional! sometimes a source of support! always number three or four on her priority list which she never quite gets around to calling him to tell him she's back on planet after a secret mission before the plot sweeps her off in a new direction, oops, well, I guess he'll find out when she's been released from prison again!
Anyway, her main plot is about trying to get a bill passed in the Senate that will limit Palpatine's power as Emperor, which involves making various shady deals with various powerful factions; meanwhile, Bail Organa has a separate plot in which he's running around trying to EXPOSE the LIES about the JEDI because he thinks that once everyone knows the Jedi were massacred without cause, Palpatine will be toppled by public outrage immediately. Both of them think the other's plan is kind of stupid and also find the other kind of annoying at this time, which tbh I really enjoy. I love when people don't like each other for normal reasons and have to work together anyway. I also like the other main wedge between them, which is that both of them were briefly Politically Arrested right before the book begins, and by chance and charisma Bail Organa joked his way out of it and came out fine while Mon Mothma went through a harrowing and physically traumatic experience that has left her with lingering PTSD, and Mon Mothma knows this and Bail Organa doesn't and this colors all their choices throughout the book.
Bail Organa's plot is also sort of hitched onto a plot about an elderly Republic-turned-Imperial spymaster who's trying to find the agents she lost at the end of the war, and her spy protege who accidentally ends up infiltrating the Star Wars pro-Palpatine alt-right movement, both of which work pretty well as stories about people who find themselves sort of within a system as the system is changing underneath them.
And then there is the Saw plotline. This is my biggest disappointment in the book, is that the Saw plotline is not actually a Saw plotline; it's about a Separatist assassin who ends up temporarily teaming up with Saw for a bit as he tries to figure out who he should be assassinating now that the war is over, and we see Saw through his eyes, mostly pretty judgmentally. I do not object to other characters seeing Saw Gerrera pretty judgmentally, but it feels to me like a bit of a cop-out in a book that's pitched as 'how Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and Saw Gerrera face growing fascism and start down the paths that will eventually lead to the Rebel Alliance' to once again almost entirely avoid giving Saw a point of view to see his ideology from within. But Star Wars as franchise is consistently determined not to do that. Ah, well; maybe one of the later two books in this trilogy will have a meaty interiority-heavy Saw plotline and I'll eat my words.
(NB: I have not yet seen S2 of Andor and I do plan to do so at some point, please don't tell me anything about it!)
Friday Five.... Armpit edition???
Sep. 13th, 2025 09:38 amofearthandstarsFrom thefridayfive:
thefridayfive:
1. What is your favourite fruit?
I love stone fruits like nectarines, peaches, Ranier cherries.
2. What is the last book you read?
I just finished How to Survive in a Chaotic Climate, which is a decent book with recommendations for how to come to terms with the fact that humans are destroying everything, and even if you mean well, you probably can't extricate yourself from the systems that feed it.
3. Do you like any of your school photos?
I had one good photo my senior year that was taken with the rest of the tennis team, and an individual player photo. But the latter needed a retake due to something I can't remember, and the guy who came out to retake it positioned me facing the sun, squinting, on a windy day so my hair was blowing around my face and taking off like a witch in flight and into my braces as I smiled.... thus resulted my most hated photo that my mother STILL passed out to family members. If I could claw them all back I would.
4. Do you ever blowdry your armpits to get the deodorant to dry quicker?
WHAT IS THIS QUESTION??!? What deodorant are we using that is so wet??!? The answer is no.
5. What was the last film you watched?
Probably Sinners? Which was decently good although some of the special effects were questionable.