Falling Stars

Works are revealed for Id Pro Quo! And I got a beautiful story for Captive Prince.

Title: every good thing
Fandom: Captive Prince - CS Pacat
Relationships: Damen & His Vaskian Daughter, Damen & Nikandros
Characters: Damen, Original Characters, Nikandros
Tags: No Archive Warnings Apply, Meeting A Long-Lost Relative, Post-Canon, POV Outsider
Rating: General
Summary: "She arrived this morning, on foot, alone." The captain swallowed. "She says she is the King's daughter."

I've wondered for a while about the possible daughter that Damen might have in Vask, and it was a real delight to get to read about her at last. I'm so happy to see their first meeting and this glimpse of the future. Thank you so much, dear writer!

167 works in 115 fandoms!

By Benjamin Stevenson.

I'm going to sound like I'm damning this book with faint praise. But honestly its existence was a surprise and a delight to me.

I loved the first two Ernest Cunningham mysteries, which are basically love letters to the Golden Age murder mystery, but set in modern day Australia. (The first one at a family reunion at an isolated ski lodge in the Snowy Mountains, and the second one at a writers' festival on the legendary train the Ghan.)

I'd wondered when the next one would be coming out, but totally missed its release last December, appropriately in time for Christmas. In this book, Stevenson draws not only on the tropes of the murder mystery, but on another classic format - the holiday special.

With only a few days until Christmas, Ernest Cunningham is called upon to solve a murder connected to a stage magician. Which, I have to say, is a great hook.

The story is set in Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains, with lots of local landmarks and references. It takes place during a heatwave, and I love all the descriptions of what the Christmas season is like during the Australian summer. (Even though the one time I was in the Blue Mountains in summer, it was ridiculously cold and I had to wear a jumper.)

There are no shortage of murder suspects, but my main complaint is that we don't get to know them that well. This is a shorter book than the others, and it feels more lightweight, in part because the characters are more lightly drawn. Maybe it's all you need for a light beach read, or for, well, a holiday special. But it doesn't have the same emotional impact as the other books.

Still, the mystery is engaging enough, and the denouement is satisfying. There was a good balance of clues I could figure out, and clues that came as a clever reveal. The author lays them out as an advent calendar, which was thematically appropriate. As always, there's a lot of meta commentary about murder mysteries (and this time, holiday specials), which was sometimes laid on a bit thick, but whatever, that's what I'm here for.

French Open: Rafael Nadal honoured at Roland-Garros as Federer, Djokovic and Murray return

"You gave me some hard times on court but I really enjoyed a lot pushing myself to the limit every single day to compete with all of you," Nadal said.

"At the end, tennis is just a game. Sometimes we feel it's a little bit more but I think we understand it's really only a game.

"So that means [everything] for me that all of you are here. That's a great message to the world that we can be good friends even if we had the best rivalries. Thank you very, very much for everything during all these years."

An era that seemed like it would last forever. At least the memories will.

Volumes 1-4
Volumes 5-9

This manga continues to be not just the story of a man and his cat, but all the lost souls and wounded hearts who come into their orbit, whose hurts begin to heal through human kindness and feline devotion. Every volume manages to punch me in the emotions, but in a good way.

( Highlights )

Just so relieved.

Anthony Albanese and Labor claim landslide election win as Peter Dutton loses seat

Kindness isn't weakness.

I've said before that some themes always feel timely and relevant. Well, some themes also feel timeless and relevant - like when a war criminal arrives on Babylon 5, and then politics happen.

( Spoilery reactions )

Babylon 5 has so many episode titles that are beautiful and evocative. I remember people making lists of their favourites. And when you get to a title like this one, you expect it to signal something special. I was not disappointed. I know Babylon 5 is all mytharc, but this episode felt very mytharc.

( Spoilery reactions )

It was a manga, then an anime, and now a live action movie! (Well, made in 2024, and now on Netflix.)

Live action adaptations can be a mixed bag. This one totally nails it. Filmed on location in Hokkaido, with gorgeous snowy landscapes and sweeping mountain vistas. Beautiful cinematography, great pacing, dramatic action, and even the bits of humour. (Still violent and gory, but more sporadic than in the manga.)

The casting totally worked for me. I loved that every time a character was introduced, we got a dramatic pause, and a title card with their name and role. It felt like if you were in the theatre and you got to applaud their entrance.

(It was mildly amusing every time someone called Asirpa "the Ainu child", because her actress fully looks like she's 20. But I was happy to suspend my disbelief.)

( Spoilers )

The movie covers just the first part of the story, but it ends in a reasonably satisfying place. The story continues in a live action TV series, also now on Netflix.

Dear Hurt/Comfort Writer,

Thank you so much for offering to write a story for me! I love all these fandoms, and the tropes I've nominated, and I'm really keen to see what you do in them! I've also provided some extra prompts in case you're looking for inspiration, but I'd also love to see whatever other ideas capture your imagination.

For me, it's about the characters and their interactions. I'm not a stickler about researching canon details, as long as the spirit of the characters and the flavour of their world is there. I want to see adventures that might have been, or missing moments from between scenes, or a slice of their daily lives, or where the future might take them.

HURT/COMFORT PREFERENCES: I'm not into graphic descriptions of physical injuries. I'm more interested in the emotional state of the character, coping with the aftermath, the reveal of the hurt, and the eventual comfort.

LIKES: Some of the things I enjoy in stories are: undying loyalty, personal bravery, risking self to protect others, displaying cool competence, big damn hero moments, special everyday moments, banter, hijinks, confessions exposing emotional vulnerability, conversations loaded with unspoken meaning, tough people showing a soft side, and soft people showing a tough side. Some of my favourite tropes and genres are: amnesia, angst with a happy ending, animal transformation, arranged marriage, bodyswap, cosmic horror, curtainfic, five things fic, getting together, hurt/comfort, marriage of convenience, mystery solving, requited pining, road trips, sex pollen, slice of life, stranded together, and time travel.

DISLIKES: I generally prefer optimistic stories in exchanges, so I'm not keen on anything that is brutally violent or hopelessly bleak. However, I don't mind darkness during the story, as long as there is a glimmer of light at the end. Endings that are bittersweet or ambiguous are also fine.

DO NOT WANT: underage, bleak endings, crossovers, setting change AUs like high school, coffee shop, or omegaverse (but canon divergence AUs are fine).

RATING: I've requested some gen and some ships in this exchange. For the latter, I'd enjoy anything ranging from unresolved sexual tension, to getting together, to established relationship. I'm fine with explicit sex, but it's usually not the most important part of the story for me.

STYLE: I'm fine with first, second, or third person. I'm fine with past or present tense. I'm fine with stories of any length, including stories that start in media res or consist of a scene that implies a larger plot.

INTERACTIVE FICTION: I like interactive fiction and would welcome it.

AO3: I have gifts enabled and am open to treats.

I've listed more details under each individual request.

I hope this helps. Have fun writing!

Yours sincerely,

meteordust
(AO3 name Serenade)

***

( Request 1: Chronicles of Morgaine - CJ Cherryh - fanfic )

( Request 2: Seafort Saga - David Feintuch - fanfic )

( Request 3: The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan - fanfic )

Last year in Fallen London, I was able to keep my Noman alive until the Feast of the Exceptional Rose, when it was possible for my character to get a tattoo of the Noman to remember it by.

So having done that, this year I took a different option at the tattoo parlour: watching an unusual visitor get a tattoo instead.

A skin-bound memory

"Are you sure?" Millicent asks. "If I were you, I'd be finding better ways to spend my time."

The visitor sits. Its face is marred by asymmetry; one cheekbone has slumped lower than the other. "I'm starting to forget things. What good is time if I can't remember it?"

Millicent sniffs; winces at the ammonia-smell. "All right. What do you want?"

"All of it. The sorrowful sea. The pebbled beach. The reflection I saw in the Carnival mirrors: myself, older. The boy who gave me a bouquet of mushrooms..."

Millicent scrabbles for her tools. "Slow down, slow down." She brushes an assaying thumb across her client's skin, and it comes away glistening with a milky residue. "I don't know how well the ink will take."

The visitor grabs her wrist in slippery fingers. "Try."

It's very "tears in the rain".