Hallowe'en
Oct. 31st, 2025 09:43 pmHappy Hallowe'en and blessed Samhain, as applicable! It's a quiet one here. The wind and rain were wild for much of the day, but did calm down in the late afternoon, as hoped. Reports from online locals indicate that a lot of people got way fewer trick-or-treaters than usual (if any), although some spots seemed to get normal levels.
We don't really know what our neighborhood "normal" is, either in the area in general or along our condo corp's road, since for the last few years we've just been setting out the candy and refilling as needed. Some or most of it has generally vanished, but that doesn't say much about numbers vs. the likelihood that at least a few kids take it by the fistful. But tonight
I've mostly been chilling on the main level with the cats, who've been barred from the ground floor for the evening. (We had the window open during that span of time when more kids might've been on the move out there, but I heard only the occasional young voice echoing over from the main road.) After finishing up at Dayjob for the day, I put on my Hallowe'en onesie, and
I hope you're all having a fun/peaceful time of it.
My 1000th fic on AO3!
Oct. 31st, 2025 02:53 pmOut of Time (2300 wds, Algy & Erich, gen)
The first one should probably be read first, if you haven't already.
And there it is, and here's to the next 1000!
Rare Pair Recs
Oct. 31st, 2025 12:08 pmyou and you are heart in heart (2,289 words). Even now, two months after Paris’ defeat outside the walls of Verona, unrest still fermented. The peace treaty which had once hinged on Benvolio’s execution now hinged on Benvolio and Rosaline’s wedding.
And there was a lot of other good fic that you should check out. Here are some I liked:
Taking Chances Together (1254 words)
Fandom: Star Trek: The Original Series
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Spock/Nyota Uhura
Additional Tags: post s2e1 Amok Time, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Summary:
A musical collaboration turns into more...
In Splendid Sunshine Dressed (1868 words
Fandom: Casablanca (1942)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Rick Blaine, Victor Laszlo (Casablanca), Ilsa Lund
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Getting Together
Summary:
Rick is invited back into Ilsa's life... but what about her husband?
Here's to We (1233 words)
Fandom: MASH (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Lorraine Anderson/Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan
Additional Tags: Slice of Life, Friends to Lovers, Character Study, Epistolary, Margaret Backstory Typical Implied/Referenced Sexual Harassment, Episode Tag: s06e21 Temporary Duty, Episode Tag: s07e19 Hot Lips is Back In Town, 12x100
Summary:
Snapshots of Margaret and Lorraine's relationship from 1932-1952: growing up, growing apart, and finding their way back.
I Prayed For You (2445 words)
Fandom: MASH (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: B. J. Hunnicutt/Father Francis Mulcahy
Additional Tags: Developing Relationship
Summary:
Francis gave something away in hopes of comfort. BJ held that comfort close, even in the late hours.
Or Father Mulchay's trip takes a bit longer than predicted, long enough for some reflection on something developing. (For the 2025 RarePair Exchange!)
How the Halcyon Song Lingers (1348 words)
Fandom: Little Women (2019 Movie - Gerwig)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Theodore "Laurie" Laurence/Amy March
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Parenthood, Married Life, Fall Vibes, Domestic Fluff
Summary:
A glimpse of family life with the Laurences, as Amy and Laurie go for an autumn stroll with little Bess.
Heart's Got Everything to Do With It (6700 words)
Fandom: Tin Man (US TV 2007)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Wyatt Cain/DG
Characters: DG (Tin Man), Wyatt Cain, Azkadellia (Tin Man), Jeb Cain
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, First Kiss, Queen DG
Summary:
It was like the Quest had never ended at all; DG had just run out of signposts to follow. Well, except maybe one....
Heart Murmur (2856 words)
Fandom: MASH (TV)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan/Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Reunions, Cunnilingus, Hawkeye Pierce's canonical ED
Summary:
The woman who took the stage was a brunette, fading peroxide-blonde tips neatly tucked into a bun and graying at the temples. She looked better in a pantsuit than she ever had in fatigues, and she’d looked damn good in fatigues. Someone in the crowd wolf-whistled. She tapped her note cards to the podium with a glare that could jump start spontaneous combustion.
Margaret looked the same as ever, even brunette—like she was fully prepared to crush a man into dust for seeing her as less than she was.
The Broadwood Grand (4827 words)
Fandom: Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Colonel Brandon/Marianne Dashwood (Sense and Sensibility)
Additional Tags: Tags Contain Spoilers, Romance, Fluff, Marriage Proposal, Friendship/Love, Romantic Friendship, Love Confessions, Falling In Love, Piano, Family Fluff, POV Third Person Limited, Requited Love, Requited Unrequited Love, Present Tense, Regency Romance, Inspired by Jane Austen, Inspired by Music, Happy Ending, Extended Scene, Canon Compliant
Summary:
Marianne Dashwood’s heart is an ocean, deep and vast and rich with life. He has seen it shimmer with the sunlight of affection, roil with the storms of heartbreak, and reel into the calmness of acceptance; but the breeze will blow when it chooses to blow, and Brandon—ever ready with his sails—would wait forever for good winds.
One Kiss is All it Takes (1470 words)
Fandom: Star Wars Original Trilogy
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Lando Calrissian/Luke Skywalker
Additional Tags: Getting Together, First Kiss, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Post-Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Luke Skywalker Needs A Hug
Summary:
After what happened on Bespin, Lando visits Luke in the infirmary.
Church and Mountain and London
Oct. 31st, 2025 06:01 pmConclave, by Robert Harris: It's always tricky to read a book after watching the movie made based on it, but in this case it felt like both a good book to the movie, and that the movie was a good adaption of the book. It was very difficult not to see the characters from the movie while reading, even the main character who was the only one who got a different name in the movie. The book had a few details the movie couldn't fit and otherwise some minor changes, and I think if I felt more fannish about it comparing them would be very interesting but I'm not quite invested enough.
Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer: A gripping personal account of a Mount Everest expedition that ended in disaster.
Reading this was a bit strange because I kept getting a feeling of déja vu, but I can't recall reading similar books. I think I was probably remembering a couple of documentaries I watched as a kid (several of them featuring Reinhold Messner, probably - for some reason for some time I thought he was "just" the best Austrian (actually South Tyrolean/Italian) climber and didn't realize he had so much global fame.) Very little in the book I found actually surprising, though some of the details were even harsher than I'd expected, like how difficult it even is to eat that high up.
Funnily enough I kept thinking about the post-main-story snippet for the Superstition series that recalls how Jacks almost broke up with Luc because Luc decided he had to climb Mount Everest after retiring from the NHL, something Jacks considered extremely risky and irresponsible. And with good reason!
The book did a good job showing how a couple of not-so-egregious-on-their-own mistakes that under ideal conditions would have barely mattered added together under not-ideal conditions led to disaster. One of the most interesting parts of the book for me was the interplay between "on the mountain" and "the outside world." Reading a little more about the reception of the book afterwards, it's shocking how the survivors have seemingly had to justify their actions for the next years and decades and how fixated other people who weren't there and had little if any personal connections became on who was to blame.
Slow Horses, by Mike Herron: I actually don't remember where I got this recommendation - I might have just seen it in the "new books" category from the library? It's been a while since I read a spy thriller and I was in the mood for one for some reason.
It took me a while to get into this, and at first I was not even sure I would continue because I dislike "everyone is miserable and nobody likes each other" settings. But fortunately it gave me enough hope it would get better (and eventually did get slightly better) until the exciting spy and action parts kicked in, and those were indeed fun. I put a hold on the next part of the series just in case.
Whumptober Alt: “I hear you’re alive, how disappointing.” [Biggles]
Oct. 31st, 2025 12:25 am“I hear you’re alive, how disappointing.”
Biggles & EvS, 600 wds, enemies-era
( 600 wds under the cut )
Write Every Day: Day 31
Oct. 31st, 2025 07:55 pmSo, I talked through some of the main problems I ran into while writing the book, and how, instead of going, “Ack, problems, I quit!” I tried to say, “Ah ha, problems, that means things are getting interesting.”
I often think of Houdini in this context. If he came out wearing, say, a light windbreaker, and said he would now endeavor to get out of it - nobody’s fascinated. But if he’s got on a straitjacket and padlock and lets us throw him into the Hudson River - then we’re talking.
When a writer has a problem, the reader feels it, and then, when the writer identifies and addresses that problem - this feels like originality and innovation.
– George Saunders, via Substack
My day 31: I added another 639 words to my WIP, mostly at writers' hour. I think it's nearly done, but I spent the rest of the day reading the next Dorothy Sayers
Thank you all so much for being here, for this half of October -- it's been such a pleasure to get your check-ins! I'll post the final tally in a couple of days to allow for time zones. :-)
Reminder:
The tally
( Tally )
Day 29:
Day 30:
When you check in, please say what day(s) you’re checking in for. You can join in or take a break at any time; you’re always welcome back. And please let me know if I’ve missed you.
2555 / Fic - The Pitt
Oct. 30th, 2025 11:38 pmThe Pitt | Jack/Robby | ~2000 words | Thanks to
(Also on AO3)
( Robby thinks his mattress is perfectly fine. Jack begs to differ. )
unpopular opinions
Oct. 30th, 2025 06:02 amcf. composing music, where this would be like saying to a composer: you MUST ALWAYS start FIRST with a melody or you MUST ALWAYS start FIRST with a harmonic progression or you MUST ALWAYS start FIRST with instrumentation etc. No??? You can start in any of a number of places and still wind up with music???
There are times you need to start with $XYZ because of the use case (if writing for a string quartet, that constrains your instrumentation, ranges, techniques).
But when writing music, I can START in ANY of these places (not a complete list) (and have done so at various points):
- instrumentation
- tempo
- time signature
- harmonic progression
- a rhythm
- a vibe
- key/mode/etc
- melody or leitmotif
- structure/form (e.g. theme and variations, ternary form)
- a transformation (e.g. diminution, retrograde)
- articulation(s) to feature
- trolling ("What if I rewrote Swan Lake's theme in 5/4?")
etc
You're not going to be able to tell which one from the RESULTING MUSIC as an end product.
For that matter, watching web/comic creators talk about story ideation is fascinating. A bunch of them start with "I drew this cool character, but who are they? what is their story?", which is absolutely not my process since I don't visualize, but it's a perfectly cromulent process!
Gratuitous poll
Oct. 29th, 2025 11:03 pmIt'll increment in a few days when some currently unrevealed things are revealed, but before it does that I want to try to write a lucky 1000th fic.
(Appropriately, I'm also hitting this weird little milestone on the 25th anniversary of my time writing fanfic, which started in 2000.)
What should I doooooo?
Write something extra special or iddy
44 (84.6%)
Use this as motivation to finish a WIP
19 (36.5%)
Actually manage to write something for spook-me this year
6 (11.5%)
Write a fandom or pairing I've never written before
3 (5.8%)
Revisit a fandom or pairing I haven't written in ages
23 (44.2%)
Write something experimental or wildly off brand for me
7 (13.5%)
Write something I, the person taking this poll, would like to see and will tell you about in comments
5 (9.6%)
Write a giant mega crossover of every fandom I've ever been in
8 (15.4%)
How very DARE you limit me to 3 options on this poll! I will express my opinions in comments
3 (5.8%)
Write Every Day: Day 30
Oct. 30th, 2025 06:10 pmThere will always be constraints—time, budget, materials and equipment. If you’re waiting for all of the roadblocks to be cleared before you begin, you might be waiting all your life. So stop waiting. Just do your best to put something into the world that wasn't there yesterday. We can do that. I hope you begin something today, maybe something you’ve been putting off or waiting on the just-right conditions for. Forget just right and try right now instead. You don’t have to know what you’re doing or how it will turn out. Just start.
– Maggie Smith, via Substack
My day 30: I added another 530 words to my WIP (and did a couple more Youtube art tutorials: a dragon and a black cat). Depending on how my arms are in a couple of hours, I might go to UK Writers' Hour and keep working on my WIP. It would be good to get it done.
One more day in October! Reminder that
The tally
( Tally )
Day 28:
Day 29:
When you check in, please say what day(s) you’re checking in for. You can join in or take a break at any time; you’re always welcome back. And please let me know if I’ve missed you.
[music] Trailures and Other Fiascoes
Oct. 29th, 2025 10:18 pm(I know voice lessons exist but for medical reasons, sore throat for over a year; singing is contraindicated.)
(This is accumulated composition/production from the past few months; I'm bowing out of a bunch of things currently due to ongoing health stuff. I don't want to discuss health details further, thanks!)
wednesday reads and things
Oct. 29th, 2025 07:04 pmEurope at Midnight and Europe in Winter, the second and third of the Fractured Europe Sequence by Dave Hutchinson. The first was a reread (and again, I was surprised at how much I'd forgotten in the 10 years since I read it the first time), but I really enjoyed the SF aspect of
spoiler for the cool reveal at the end of the first book, which is explored in the second book
the Community existing as a private England overlaying Europe in another dimension; the idea of the map (somehow) becoming the territory is just fascinating!I actually requested this for Yuletide, and one of my prompts was "worldbuilding - what's happening in the US?" and...one character meets with someone who has a Texas passport, so, there's a whole lot hinted at by that tiny detail right there!
What I'm currently reading:
Europe at Dawn, the finale of the series. This one feels more like various vignettes set in this universe, though I expect everything will come together eventually. I do like how the Situations that the Coureurs handle are all matter-of-fact cloak-and-dagger: a woman walks up to our POV character and says something fairly banal, and he responds with a similar sentence; when she's gone, he finds a slip of paper in his pocket with the name of a hotel in another city; he goes there and checks in, and there's another slip of paper in the bedside Bible; he finds the car with the number plate on that paper and he gets in and drives across the border and leaves it in the parking lot of a certain cafe, then he takes the train home. It's all very mysterious! and fun! (and leaves me wondering why go to all that trouble to hide things in places in so many steps, but...)
(B is reading the Fourth Wing series and enjoying it. I'm kind of gobsmacked.)
What I started watching and abandoned:
The Fall of the House of Usher, which, okay I liked the transposition to a very modern gothic story about
What I'm watching now:
Season 3 of The Diplomat, which got off to a magnificent and twisty-turny start!
What I'm Doing Wednesday
Oct. 29th, 2025 03:50 pmThe Dharma of Healing: The Path of Liberation from Stress, Pain, and Trauma by Justin Michelson. 2025. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED if you have a history of anxiety, depression, PTSD, chronic pain, etc. I did hate the introduction, but I loved the rest of it. I've done all but the last couple of the guided meditations, too. A++, will absolutely reread.
Italy in the Central Middle Ages: 1000-1300 by David Abulafia et al. 2004, so it's dated scholarship, but there are some interesting tidbits.
healthcrap
Sooo, last week's whining turned out to be the worst IBS flare I've had in over a decade. I didn't know it could cause insomnia! THEN! Friday I failed to add one of my psych meds to my pill box & only realized it YESTERDAY! :facepalms forever: That only added to the existing nausea and insomnia from last week. Grrrr! ( cut for mention of weight maintenance issues )
yarning
I missed yarn group Sunday due to the IBS/withdrawal nausea. Spent the time crocheting another cat stitch scarf and reviewing Yuletide canon. Monday I did a long photoshoot of the 15 items that I just listed in my shop. (So many cat toys! -- just in time for Kitten Academy Sekrit Santa to go live, woot!) Also, this soft acrylic scarf is for sale (as well as matching one in a burgundy, ivory, and grey wool-blend):

I'm holding back on making more cat stitch scarves until these two sell, unless someone commissions one in other colors, frex. Meanwhile, I have all this yarn that I'm impatient to use, and I just don't know what to make with it. Suggestions welcome! Maybe more winter hats for donation? IDK. I also am on the verge of making an S3 Lestat art doll, except I need some good reference images, esp for the scars. If I do a wire armature, he can even hold a tiny microphone. Hmmmm...
etsy
also, etsy's CEO is stepping down and a different board member, I forget her name atm, is stepping up. May she undo the stupid decisions the soon-to-be-former guy made.
#resist
THIS weekend! #50501: Disappeared in America Weekend of Action — a national mobilization to protect immigrants, expose corporate complicity, and honor the lives lost in detention. Includes protests at Home Depots, Freedom Vigils & invokes el Día de los Muertos in an actually appropriate way.
Hurricane Melissa
Stronger than Katrina! When it hit Jamaica, Melissa had surface level winds gusting up to 252mph, 185mph sustained. I don't yet know where to link to donate that isn't the Red Cross, but dear gods. Wind like that, to say nothing of the surge, isn't survivable. Please consider donating to relief operations once they unfold. (Marco Rubio says US forces are there helping dig out so relief can arrive.)
EDITED TO ADD: WAYS TO DONATE TO JAMAICA RELIEF, from
https://projectdynamo.net/project-dynamo-preparing-to-deploy-rescue-team-supplies-to-jamaica-immediately-after-hurricane-melissa/
https://supportjamaica.gov.jm/
That said, I hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween! It's Fall here at last, temperature-wise, and finally time to put a blanket back on the bed. I hope you're all doing well! <333
A-Z fic meme, as seen all over my friends list
Oct. 29th, 2025 01:54 pm- A And Sinister, X-Files/Greek myth (just trust me) It's perilous to bargain with dark women at crossroads.
- B Bad News on the Doorstep, Highlander/Marvel Hopefully, they're going to get along. Maybe like a bar afire.
- C Cherries In Winter, Victor/Victoria In the winter of 1935, soon to be 1936, Andre Cassell's club has a new opening act.
- D Double Vision, Marvel (various canon) Steve Rogers learned his guilt-trip glare from his mother. It can have interesting effects.
- E Exemptions and Indulgences, Highlander/Discworld I AM AFRAID YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE SITUATION.
- F Fire In The Hole, Highlander/X-Files/Buffy Possibly the weirdest part of Mulder's night so far -- and it said a lot about the whole thing -- lay in the wolf being the one that tried to get out of his way to let him shoot the basilisk again.
- G A Game of Cat and Cat, Highlander/Blood Ties Two acquaintances from the court of Henry VIII, five hundred years later: who's playing with whom?
- H Hot Pursuit, due South/Highlander Law enforcement officers can't resist hot pursuit. 800 year old FBI agents are no exception to this rule, especially when it's a Mountie in a speeding carriage chasing a wolf through Chicago.
- I The Innocent Sleep, Highlander New Year's Eve at Joe's bar. Written for Amireal's International Nap Day challenge.
- J Joe Dawson, BAMF, Highlander/Stargate SG-1 https://archiveofourown.org/works/763847
- K Kindred Spirits, Highlander/Leverage Rebeca learned about cons from one of the best.
- L Life Cycles, Marvel Sometimes 'daddy's girl' isn't a description so much as a warning label.
- M Mismatched Pieces, Marvel/Highlander (Opportunities 'verse) Very few targets survive the Winter Soldier.
- N Not To Plan, X-Files/Stargate SG-1 The second stupid thing the goons did was throw Mitchell in the same cell with Krycek.
- O Open(ing) Doors, Leverage Game and negotiation theory suggests that opening up and vulnerability can in fact lead to the best mutual outcomes. Grifters use their own apparent vulnerabilities to achieve their aims. Mix well, stir, and add an angry Eliot Spencer, who grifts quite well for a
hitterretrieval specialist. - P Parched, Highlander Blood cleans off a blade so easily, really. Some days it's dry and difficult work. Other days it's as easy as running that blade through a man. This morning, though -- this morning was easy, both the killing and the aftermath.
- Q Quiet Breaks, Numb3rs Ian hasn't talked to either Eppes brother since they hunted down a black box together. He's been a little busy with this.
- R Respite, Buffy/X-Files Two heroes sorely in need of a vacation run into each other. They also run into tea, cocoa, conversations about vampires, and really good pancakes.
- S The Scent of Salt and Wood, Rivers of London/Forever Kissing a perfect stranger in an alley is unusual behavior for both of them.
- T Time Upon A Once, Amber Chronicles/Wizard of Oz/Fairy tales A thorny tale of 1 missing prince, 2 princesses, 2 cats, 3 witches, and a silver bird. Some overlap possible among categories; partridge in a pear tree not included. Drinking while reading not recommended.
- U Unanswered Riddles, Riddlemaster of Hed She woke in the night knowing that her doom had missed her by an hour at most... and that it was still waiting for her. So Lyra got up, and packed, and went to meet it.
- V Vintage Appreciation, Forever Knight/Southern Vampire books (Charlaine Harris) Two vampires discussing rare vintages.
- W White Horses and Tails, Nero Wolfe/Highlander Saul Panzer never forgets a face, or where and when he saw it. Connor MacLeod has lived, and done business in, New York City for two centuries, off and on. In combination, that can lead to a problem.
- Y You See Two Geek Geniuses and Several Computers, Leverage/Warehouse 13 They were in a maze of twisty passages, all alike.
X & Z don't have titles. I shall have to fix this. 24/26, and 291 works. Nice!
(If any links go to the wrong fic, let me know and I'll fix it.)
Seasonal things, mostly
Oct. 29th, 2025 03:27 pmThe leaves are well and truly coming down now. There are still plenty on some trees--browning and crumpling--but the ground is drifted with them. (One of the downsides of having the outdoor spaces around the condo handled by a company: the leaves will probably all get gathered/raked/blown, rather than being left for winter habitat for critters. >.<)
We've had a few spots of rain in the last week or so, although nothing really major...and now we have a special weather statement for rain and strong winds on Hallowe'en. The timing. Possibly it'll clear up (or at least ease up) enough that trick or treating won't be miserable. (There are local social media reports of seeing parents demanding that Hallowe'en be rescheduled, but most people I actually know are cheerfully reminiscing about snowsuits and raincoats always being part of their costumes as kids.)
Our approach for the last couple years, at least, has been to simply leave out a bowl of treats and check on/refill it periodically, which will be much more feasible if the wind isn't threatening to simply blow it away. :/ (This year I was annoyingly sensible and said we should make sure to get treat offerings that I actively don't want, because blood sugar, etc. So we've done that.)
emotional support dyeing?
Oct. 29th, 2025 10:43 am
A test batch to see how the colors come out. Next I start measuring out and doing this more systematically.
Three-ply handspun wool yarn.