the_paradigm: (penelo)
[personal profile] the_paradigm posting in [community profile] fan_flashworks
Title: Her First Choice
Fandom: Final Fantasy XII
Author: [personal profile] the_paradigm
Characters/Pairing: Penelo, Tomaj, and an absent third party.
Rating: M
Warnings: Non-descriptive/implicit sexual content; semi-realistic first-times; age gap fantasies.
Word Count: 983
Spoilers/Setting: Post-Canon OGC and Revenant Wings, but no real spoilers.
Summary: Some girls viewed their first time as something to cherish.
Disclaimer: I do not own FFXII or its characters.

Challenge: #488 - Twinkle

Her First Choice )
celli: a woman's hand holding a fountain pen, with paper in the background (Regency writing)
[personal profile] celli posting in [community profile] fancake
Fandom: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Pairings/Characters: Choi Soobin/Kang Taehyun, side Choi Beomgyu/Choi Yeonjun, unrequited Soobin/Beomgyu
Rating: Teen and up
Length: 21K words
Creator Links: [archiveofourown.org profile] ratherunnecessary
Theme: Marriage of Convenience, Alternative Professions

Summary:
Choi Soobin: Korea’s hottest leading man—who’s secretly nursing a broken heart.

Kang Taehyun: heir to the legendary Kang Entertainment—but only if he gets married first.

Reccer's Notes: I love Soobin in this - he goes from broken-hearted to agreeing to help an acquaintance (by marrying him, of course) to a devoted husband. He comes into his own as a partner over the course of this, and is more solid in himself at the end, too.

The other characters are also great. Yeonjun, in particular, just shines.

Fanwork Links: promise not to promise anymore on AO3
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Posted by Kattullus

How Star Wars Andor Reframed the Star Wars Myth is a four hour video essay by Jessie Gender about season two of Andor, exploring its flaws as a way to foreground its success as a portrait of revolution, and as a call to arms in a darkening world.
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Posted by chavenet

"Clanker" appears to have peeked into the internet's lexicon starting in early June, with Google Trends data showing a sudden uptick in search interest... But there's a catch. By using a slur in a way that would typically apply to a human, people are also elevating the technology, offering some sense that people both want to put down the machines and recognize their ascension in society. from Is an AI backlash brewing? What 'clanker' says about growing frustrations with emerging tech

Troubled Waters, by Sharon Shinn

Aug. 12th, 2025 12:42 pm
rachelmanija: (Default)
[personal profile] rachelmanija


Zoe Ardelay and her father have lived in exile in a small village since he, a former courtier, had an argument with the king. At the opening of the book, her father has just died of natural causes. Then Darien, the king's advisor, shows up and announces that Zoe has been chosen as the king's fifth wife. Zoe, immersed in the drifting, passive phase of grief, sets out with him for the capital city she hasn't seen since she was a child. The story does not go in any of the expected directions after that, starting with the conveyance they use to get there: a new invention, a gas-powered automobile.

This small-scale fantasy is the first of five "Elemental Blessings" books, but stands alone. It does end up involving the politics and rulership of a country, but it's mostly the story of one woman, how her life changes after her father dies, and the relationships she has with the people she meets. It's got great characters and relationships, focuses on small but meaningful moments in a very pleasing manner, and has outstandingly original worldbuilding. Most of it is not set in court, and involves ordinary poor and middle-class people and settings. The vibe is reminiscent of early Robin McKinley.

Welce, the country it's set in, has two aspects which are crucial to both plot and character, and are interestingly intertwined. They may seem complicated when I explain them, but they're extremely easy to follow and remember in the actual book.

The first aspect is a system of elemental beliefs and magic, similar to a zodiac. The elements are water, air, fire, earth, and wood. Every person in the country is associated with one of those elements, which is linked with personality characteristics, aptitudes, aspects of the human body, and, occasionally, magic. This is all very detailed and cool - for instance, water is associated with blood, wood with bone, and so forth. We've all seen elemental systems before, but Shinn's is exceptionally well-done. The way the elemental system is entwined with everyday life is outstanding.

How do people know which element is theirs? Here's where we get to the second system, which I have never come across before. Temples, which are not dedicated to Gods but to the five elements, have barrels of blessings - coins marked with symbols representing blessings like intelligence, change, courage, joy, and so forth. Each blessing is associated with an element. People randomly pull coins for both very important and small occasions, to get a hint of what way they should take or, upon the birth of a child, to get three blessings that the child will keep for life. The blessings a child gets may or may not show their element - if they don't, it becomes clear over time based on personality.

The blessings are clearly genuinely magical and real, but often in subtle ways. I loved the blessings and the way they work into the story is incredibly cool. Same with the elements. Zoe's element is water, and her entire plot has a meandering quality which actually does feel like a water-plot, based on the qualities ascribed to water in the book.

I would recommend this to anyone who likes small-scale, character-based fantasy AND to anyone who likes cool magic systems or worldbuilding. It's not quite a cozy fantasy but it has a lot of cozy aspects. I can see myself re-reading this often.

There are five books, one for each element. I've since read the second book, Royal Airs. It's charming and enjoyable (and involves primitive airplanes, always a bonus) but doesn't quite have the same lightning in a bottle quality of Troubled Waters.
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Posted by Wordshore

BBC: Starbucks customers in South Korea have been asked to stop bringing "bulky items" into cafes to do their office work, after some brought printers and desktop computers. Others had brought in partitions and more than one computer to mark their office territory. The Korean Herald: Photos of these elaborate setups have spread widely on Korean online forums. In some cases, printers were placed on nearby chairs, blocking others from using them. A few customers even brought in partitions to turn tables into private booths. AOL: Cafe owners in the country have complained that cagongjok are impacting the profitability of their stores by taking up space, freeloading electricity, and sitting for hours after only buying one drink.
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Posted by Ask a Manager

A reader writes:

I’ve been at my workplace for five years; I like the work, I like my coworkers, and I like my direct manager.

The problem is the top of the pyramid. My organization’s leaders have never been the most effective. But recently, disparaging off-hand comments have reached a level where I’m having trouble ignoring how disparaging the upper management is. Specifically, one person in particular repeatedly refers to everyone at my level in the org as though we’re children.

Examples include references in passing to how we are all Gen Z — almost no one is, actually, but when people gently corrected her, she snapped about how it doesn’t really matter because we’re all so young anyway. (It is perhaps relevant that her kids are, in fact, Gen Z; they’re still in high school. I’m in my mid-30s.)

Relatedly, she also recently opined that we don’t know how to be professional about adhering to workplace policies because it’s most people’s first job out of college. This is also not true for almost anyone, and the person it is technically true of has been at the org for almost 10 years. The real problem, in my humble and childish opinion, is that we have no workplace policies, so everyone is trying to make it up as they go.

These condescending comments would be bad enough on their own. But it seems to inform other, more tangible issues like pay, promotion, and general trust in our choices at work. I’m in my 30s, I have a graduate degree, I am talking about buying a house with my partner, and this is not my first job. Yet when our upper management talks about how we’re all just wee wittle babies with no idea what we’re doing, it’s hard to feel as though my work is meaningful or respected. I’ve grown a lot at this job — I’ve won awards! — but I don’t think she’s noticed; to her, I seem to be at the exact same stage, in both work and life more generally, as I was five years ago.

I know I’m not the only one to feel extremely disrespected and beaten down by these comments. We’re unionized, and I know everyone else in the shop feels the same way about these comments, but we’re all kind of stymied; being spoken down to is not really a contractual issue.

For context, we are a small org. We don’t really have HR, and it’s difficult to navigate some of the workplace personnel issues because there aren’t any policies or ways to file complaints. It’s not possible to be anonymous. And this manager, while not technically my direct supervisor, is still someone I see and interface with regularly. We chitchat about life, and she also gives feedback on my work. Her desires and opinion of me impact what I’m doing daily. She also, clearly, does not take criticism constructively.

My direct supervisor gives me a lot of freedom and trust, which is a real saving grace; other people are dealing with this even more. But since we’re so small, he can only insulate me so much.

The obvious answer is to find new work; if my work doesn’t respect me, find a place that does! But I work in an industry with vanishingly few job openings. Also, unlike most other options in my field, my job is stable — even if underpaid compared with industry standard — so I don’t really feel as though I should leave, even if I could find another job, which is also unlikely.

So given that I’m staying here for at least the immediate foreseeable future, I’m wondering how to navigate this issue in a productive way.

Honestly, I don’t think you’re going to solve it, so the best thing you can do is to find ways to let it roll off of you.

That’s not to say that it’s not ridiculous and offensive; it is.

But in a small organization with no HR and this is a senior leader who doesn’t take feedback well … it’s not likely to change.

That doesn’t mean you can’t try! At a minimum, there might be responses you can try in the moment to try to highlight how absurd her comments are, or at least to push back on them. When she remarks on how young you are, you could say, “I’m in my mid-career with a master’s and X years of experience. I’m really concerned if you don’t think I have professional experience or judgment.”

When she says this is most employees’ first job out of college, say, “Wait, what? Most of us are mid-career and have been working for years.”

You could also try addressing it more head-on if you want to: “Can I ask you about something? You’ve made a lot of comments about how inexperienced I am, and I’m really taken aback by it since I’ve been working for X years. Do you have concerns about my work or my judgment that we should talk about?” … and then, depending on her response, possibly followed by, “I know you would want to know if something you were saying was landing the wrong way, so I want to be up-front that it’s demoralizing to hear my work dismissed like that.”

You might also talk to your own boss about the effect this person’s comments are having and ask if he has any insight into where on earth she’s coming from and whether he might consider having a conversation of his own with her (or, for that matter, with other management above him, who might be better positioned to tell her to cut it out).

But if none of that works, your best bet is to find ways not to care. That’s easier said than done, I realize! But this woman’s perspective is so absurd — insisting that you’re all right out of college when you’re not and talking about people in their mid-30s as wee babies — that seeing her very clearly as the jackwagon she appears to be might be the most powerful thing you can do for your own peace of mind.

The post my senior colleague keeps acting like we’re all children appeared first on Ask a Manager.

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Posted by Ask a Manager

Here are three updates from past letter-writers.

1. My horrible old coworker is a customer at my new job and keeps lying about me (#2 at the link)

Ironically, almost immediately after I posted about my situation, K decided to double down with my manager and even tried to submit a few applications for bankers who could replace me. I was a senior recruiting consultant with my previous company, so it might not seem that off to a casual observer, but I was sitting right there at my desk, 4 feet from them, as it all unfolded.

I think I heard something snap in my head; I think it was my last F to give. What did I ever do to this person to deserve this? She must have forgotten that when her dad died and she needed help I lent her a not-small amount of money to help with the funeral costs. My ex-husband, at my request, helped with cleanup after a storm knocked a tree down in her yard. She asked that I proof her work before she submitted it, and, awful person that I am, I willingly did it.

I decided to employ a technique I like to think of as “weaponized support.” Any time K needs help? Leave it to me, I got this.

The first time I interacted with her after she tried to replace me was something I’ll never forget. I answered the phone, sweet as sugar, and she asked for my manager. I politely informed her that she had just stepped away from her desk but offered nothing else. She then asked if any of my coworkers were available, all of them by name. “Unfortunately, I’m the only one available right now.” K then asked if anyone would be in later that day. “It’s just me today, but I can help you.” She literally swore on the phone. I had to stifle my laughter. After hanging up, I am not kidding when I say I doubled over laughing.

Now? I love it when she calls or stops in. I don’t know if she’s still trying to sabotage my career, but I think she’s too uncomfortable to try anymore. As a nice bonus, my manager has even praised my problem solving skills to her boss. I feel like this is a win.

2. My coworker has a horrifying WWII artifact at home

Content warning if you click through: this letter was upsetting.

It turns out Gertrude has a history of speaking inappropriately on a variety of topics and this is being addressed on levels above me. When I texted her outside of work to offer some suggestions for the doll, she told me she had called a Holocaust Museum at which she had previously volunteered (!!) and would be sending it to them. I do still have to work with her but I have disengaged as much as possible and I’m moving states in the fall anyway so I’m just going to deal until then. Thank you for your advice and attention.

3. Should I apologize for past mistakes? (#3 at the link)

I really appreciated your response and the comments from readers. There is a little more context to my question that I left out for the sake of brevity but definitely influenced my update: I had mentioned a change in leadership in my original question, which included my direct manager. He was a friend/previous colleague of our new VP and was hired fully remote multiple time zones away from our office. He would regularly ignore my messages/emails and cancel our 1-on-1s with little notice. When I could get him on the phone, he would be encouraging and apologetic, but had zero follow-through when it came to addressing any of my concerns. I had very little support from this new manager; as one of the few holdovers from the previous team I was expected to handle not only a huge amount of work, but also managing a lot of interpersonal relationships with other “old guard” members of the department (including the stakeholder my original question was about). This meant communicating decisions made by the new leadership, many of which I did not agree with.

Long story short, I ended up leaving the company a month after the project went live (3 months after I wrote to you). After a year of feeling overworked, not listened to, and taken for granted I was experiencing a textbook case of burnout. I wound up accepting an offer working under an old manager, who had seen the writing on the wall about a year and a half before I did and left for greener pastures. I am so much happier at my new role. I did take a small pay cut but I feel respected, interested in the work, and like my life is no longer consumed by work stress and anxiety.

In regards to the issue with the stakeholder, I wrote a long letter I never ended up sending to her. I did have a call with her when I told her I was leaving the company where I spoke to some of my regrets from the original project and reiterated my respect for her and our working relationship. She had very kind things to say to me and expressed dismay about me leaving the company. In retrospect, I think the precipitating incident where she vented her frustrations was a result of poor communication from leadership throughout the project, and her concerns being given lip service at levels above me (a feeling I deeply resonated with). I do feel a sense of peace and closure from that conversation. Based on the updates from my former team members who stayed I also feel validated in my decision to move on from that company. Several others left the department not long after I did.

The post updates: the horrifying doll, the awful coworker who’s now a customer, and more appeared first on Ask a Manager.

S.W.A.T.: Fan Fiction: Happy News

Aug. 12th, 2025 12:52 pm
darkjediqueen: (Default)
[personal profile] darkjediqueen posting in [community profile] fan_flashworks
Title: Happy News
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: No Warnings Apply
Fandom: S.W.A.T.
Relationships: Donovan Rocker/Molly Hicks
Tags: Established Relationship, Fluff
Summary: Molly loved the twinkle in his eyes.
Word Count: 1,877


Two New Vids (BtVS)

Aug. 12th, 2025 12:50 pm
tafadhali: (Default)
[personal profile] tafadhali posting in [community profile] vidding
It's my monthly update on [personal profile] periru3  and my vid album Jagged Little Slayer, a mashup of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Alanis Morissette. Here are the two we've posted since last time:


Title:
 Head Over Feet
Character/Pairing: Willow/Oz
Summary: Don't be surprised if I love you for all that you are

AO3DW | Tumblr


Title:
 Right Through You
Character/Pairing: Buffy and other Slayers v. The Watchers' Council
Summary: You took me for a joke — you took me for a child

AO3 | DW | Tumblr

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Posted by Ask a Manager

A reader writes:

I work for a small organization in middle management. Our CEO has asked two of our young male staff members, who are early in their careers/at the bottom of the hierarchy, if they would like to try her breast milk, more than once. Once one said, “That’s inappropriate” and she laughed. I don’t supervise either young man, but they confided in someone I supervise, who told me. They told the person I supervise that they feel targeted and like she wants them to feel scared/off-kilter.

We do have an external HR person and a board of directors. In the past, HR reports among staff have been very badly handled by the CEO (think breaking confidentiality, obvious favoritism), so there is obviously even less faith about how she will handle a complaint against her.

I perhaps made a mistake, but I reached out to the external HR person with vague details to find out the protocol for what would happen if these coworkers reported it and who they could report to, because I wanted to understand and be able to advise them on next steps (maybe through the person I supervise). HR said they could report to HR, the CEO, or directly to the board, but there is no guarantee of confidentiality and that we “must act” if I’m aware of harassment.

I’m not sure what to do next. Obviously our CEO is not a very trustworthy person, and our board has had some pretty major issues over the years and many are close friends of the CEO. I feel like I made a mistake reaching out to HR. It’s unclear if the impacted employees wanted to pursue any report at all. I want them to feel comfortable at work, and I also want our CEO to be accountable for her actions, but I know both of those things are outside of my control and I worry I bungled both through my info seeking. I’m also in such a crazy work environment that I’m questioning if it is “even that bad” — it is, right? Pretty uncool for a grandboss to offer young staff members breast milk?

Just when I think I have heard about all possible brands of office dysfunction, someone manages to surprise me.

YES, it’s incredibly weird and inappropriate for someone to offer colleagues their breast milk, let alone when there are power dynamics mixed in. And more than once?!

And this is even weirder because the employees she offered it to got the sense that she was trying to make them feel off-kilter! It would be problematic enough even if the vibe were different (maybe joking around or something, I don’t know) … but she made them feel like it was an attempt to Intimidate Via Breast Milk?

Something very odd is going on in your office. Somehow it’s not surprising that this isn’t the first time this CEO has caused a problem.

As for what to do … the external HR person is right that if a manager in the organization is aware of a potential harassment issue, they have an obligation to report it. She’s also right that the organization can’t guarantee confidentiality in such a case, because they would be obligated to investigate it and you can’t always do that without disclosing information about what was reported and where it came from. The options she gave you for reporting — to HR, the CEO, or the board — are also the standard ones I’d expect her to offer when she didn’t have more details, since it sounds like she didn’t know the complaint is about the CEO. (You always need multiple avenues for people to make a complaint in case it’s about one of those people, and so an alleged perpetrator isn’t investigating themselves, and it does sound like those multiple avenues exist here, at least in name.) So everything the external HR person told you sounds right so far.

I do think you’d ideally go back to her again and this time lay out what the actual situation is and ask for guidance on how to handle it. She should then involve the board — because the board is the only entity with authority over the CEO — and HR could take the lead on coordinating that.

But if you’re reading this and thinking the two affected employees wouldn’t want you to escalate it and would be upset that you did that in their names without even talking to them, especially in a context where people don’t particularly trust the board to be impartial … well, again, as a manager you do have an obligation to act. That said, the specifics of this are weird enough that as a first step in this particular set of circumstances, you could go to them and say, “This sounds like it could be sexual harassment to me, and if you feel that way too, here are our options for how to handle it.”

The post the CEO keeps asking young male employees to try her breast milk appeared first on Ask a Manager.

I still believe in Nashville :(

Aug. 12th, 2025 02:29 pm
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Posted by postcommunism

Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party (youtube) is one of a new collection of songs released by Hayley Williams. The music video features Justin Jones.

Context: Williams recently released a whole bunch of songs which were at first only accessible via a code received with purchase of a limited release hair dye called Ego. The songs have subsequently been released on her site and other places like YouTube, but, review sites take care to note, not as an album. Williams, 36, had been under contract with Atlantic since she was 14. This is her first significant release since her contract ended last year.
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Posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries

United States National Parks are being forced to stay open despite operating on a bare-bones crew after cuts to staff and funding. Rangers say they can't sustain it. (United States of America)

TV Tuesday: Gift of Gab

Aug. 11th, 2025 04:46 pm
yourlibrarian: Blah Blah Dawn (BUF-BlahBlah-ruuger)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian posting in [community profile] tv_talk

Laptop-TV combo with DVDs on top and smartphone on the desk



An article citing Brooklyn Nine-Nine as having the most words per minute (as well as listing the least wordy shows) begs the question as to how much dialogue influences your preferences for shows. Does it vary according to genre for you? And what episodes without any/much dialogue stand out for you?
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Posted by brainwane

"But I have thought for 7 years that git is a constraint on our understanding and distribution of software, and that in order to really modernize, we need something better." Heidi Waterhouse (disclaimer: a friend) writes about software engineering tools Git (now decades old) and GitHub: "our version control systems are still thinking in ways that make it harder and harder to support the new software models." And she discusses features she would want in a next-generation tool, "a DCVS that can do the things that git can't do (or can't do natively)."

How Not To Build The Torment Nexus

Aug. 12th, 2025 11:27 am
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Posted by gauche

What you're actually looking for, I believe, is someone to absolve you of building the Torment Nexus because you took a job at the Torment Nexus Factory. Which is a thing I cannot do.
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Posted by chavenet

In the year marking the 150th anniversary of Mann's birth, it is edifying to look back at the political evolution of a prominent man of letters who had edged up to the abyss but nonetheless turned back—and was all the wiser for it. As Alex Ross in The New Yorker observed, "Mann succumbs to the disease of nationalist resentment just before it becomes endemic in Germany. He effectively 'immunizes' himself against Hitlerism." His political conversion represented a genuine reformation of the soul and an enlargement of the spirit. from The Political Journey of Thomas Mann [The Hedgehog Review]

100 SUPERMAN (2025) TRAILER.

Aug. 12th, 2025 06:34 pm
peaked: DANY. (pic#17697747)
[personal profile] peaked posting in [community profile] fandom_icons
100 icons of superman 2025 trailer
75 | clark kent/superman + lois lane
05 | krypto the superdog
13 | lex luthor
07 | justice gang (working name)



HERE @ [community profile] shithouse

Covid jab

Aug. 12th, 2025 07:45 pm
china_shop: New Zealand painting of flax (NZ flax)
[personal profile] china_shop
For the record, I had my 11th Covid jab today. (I'm only posting about it because this is where I look when I'm checking dates. :-)
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