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Feb. 1st, 2026 04:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsI finished Tasha Suri's The Isle in the Silver Sea yesterday and I am wrestling with profoundly conflicted feelings about it. It's an interesting book, it's an ambitious book; it's a book with a great deal to say, sometimes with a sledgehammer; it went in places I didn't expect, and appreciated, and also I think it maybe fails at the central task it needed to succeed at in order to make it actually work for me as a book.
The premise: we're on an island, and this island is composed of Stories About Britain. London is there, constantly caught between Victorian London and Elizabethan London and Merrie Olde England depending on what sort of narrative you're in. The Glorious Eternal Queen reigns forever with her giant ruffs and bright red hair. Each bit of the island is tied to a bit of story, and that story attaches itself to particular people, Incarnates, who are blessed/cursed to live out the narrative and keep the landscape alive with it. At this point this has been going on for so long that incarnates are usually identified pretty early and brought to live safely at the Queen's court where they kick their heels resignedly waiting for their fate to come upon them.
Sometimes immigrants come to the island. When they come, they forget their language and their own stories in the process. They are not supposed to get caught up in incarnation situations, though -- in theory, that's reserved for True Born Englishmen -- but unfortunately for our heroine Simran, she appears to be an exception and immediately upon sighting the shores of the isle as a child also started seeing the ghost of her past incarnation, indicating that she is the latest round of the tragic tale of the Witch and the Knight, who are doomed to fall in love and then die in a murder-suicide situation For The Realm.
Simran's knight is Vina, the mixed-race daughter of a wealthy noble, who is happy to be a hot and charming lesbian knight-at-arms but does not really want to be the murderous Knight any more than Simran wants to be the Witch. However, the plot begins, Simran is targeted by an Incarnation Murderer who kidnaps her best friend and challenges her to meet him on her Fated Mountain, and they of course have to go on a quest where they of course fall in love despite themselves and also learn more about why the current order must be overthrown because trying to preserve static, perfect versions of old stories is not only dooming a lot of people to extremely depressing fates but also slowly killing the Isle. This quest makes up the first part of the book.
I am very interested in the conversation that Tasha Suri is using this book to have about national narratives and national identities and the various stories, both old and new, that they attempt to simplify and erase. Her points, as I said, aren't subtle, but given Our Current Landscape there is a fair argument to be made that this is not the time for subtlety. I also think there's also some really good and sharp jokes and commentary about the National Narratives of Britain, specifically (evil ever-ruling Gloriana is SUCH a funny choice and the way this ends up being a mirror image for Arthuriana I think is quite fun as well).
On the other hand, the conversation is so big and the Themes so Thematic that they do end up entirely overshadowing the characters for me, which I do think is also a thematic failure. The first part of the book is about Vina and Simran's struggle to interact with each other and their lives as individuals, rather than the archetypes that overshadow them, but as Vina and Simran they also never quite felt like they transcended their own archetypes of Cranky Immigrant Witch and Charming Lesbian Knight With A Hero Complex. Which startled me, tbh, because I've liked several of Tasha Suri's previous books quite a lot and this hasn't struck me as a problem before. But I think here it's really highlighted for me by the struggle with Fate; I kept, perhaps unfairly, compare-contrasting with Princess Tutu, a work I love that's also about fighting with narrative archetypes, and how extremely specific Duck and Fakir and Rue feel as characters. I finished part one feeling like I still had no idea whether Vina and Simran had fallen in love as Fated Entities or as human beings distinct from their fate, and I think given the book this is it really needs to commit hard on that score one way or another.
Part two, I think, is much more interesting than part one, and changes up the status quo in unexpected ways. If I pretend that part one landed for me then I'm much happier to roll with the ride on part two, though there is an instance of Gay Found Family Syndrome that I found really funny; you can fix any concerning man with a sweet trans husband and a cottage and a baby!genarti will argue with me that she thinks it was more complicated than that, to which I will argue, I think it could have been more complicated IF part two had had room to breathe and lean into any of those complexities. Making part one half its length and part two double its length would I think fix several of my problems with the book. "but you just said that Vina and Simran don't feel specific enough" yes that's true AND they take three hundred pages to do it! I'd be less annoyed about them feeling kind of flat if we were moving on more quickly to other things ...
Anyway. I didn't find this book satisfying but I did find it interesting; others may find it to be both. Curious to talk about it with anyone else who's read it!
Sidenote: the Tales and Incarnations are maintained by archivists, who keep the island and the stories it contains static and weed out any narratives they think don't belong. This of course is evil. I went and complained about the evil archivist propaganda togenarti, who read this book first, and she said 'read further.' So I did! It turns out that in contrast to the evil archivists, the woods are populated by good and righteous librarians!! who secretly collect oral histories and discarded tales that have been deemed subversive by the archivists but which of course the island needs to thrive. I do appreciate that not all institutional memory workers are Evil in this book and I understand the need in fiction to have a clear and easy distinguishing term between your good guys and your bad guys, but Tasha Suri, may I politely protest that this is in fact also archivist work --
Sidenote two: v. interesting to me that of the two big high-profile recent Arthurianas I've read the thing I've found most interesting about both of them is their use of the Questing Beast. we simply love a beast!!
The premise: we're on an island, and this island is composed of Stories About Britain. London is there, constantly caught between Victorian London and Elizabethan London and Merrie Olde England depending on what sort of narrative you're in. The Glorious Eternal Queen reigns forever with her giant ruffs and bright red hair. Each bit of the island is tied to a bit of story, and that story attaches itself to particular people, Incarnates, who are blessed/cursed to live out the narrative and keep the landscape alive with it. At this point this has been going on for so long that incarnates are usually identified pretty early and brought to live safely at the Queen's court where they kick their heels resignedly waiting for their fate to come upon them.
Sometimes immigrants come to the island. When they come, they forget their language and their own stories in the process. They are not supposed to get caught up in incarnation situations, though -- in theory, that's reserved for True Born Englishmen -- but unfortunately for our heroine Simran, she appears to be an exception and immediately upon sighting the shores of the isle as a child also started seeing the ghost of her past incarnation, indicating that she is the latest round of the tragic tale of the Witch and the Knight, who are doomed to fall in love and then die in a murder-suicide situation For The Realm.
Simran's knight is Vina, the mixed-race daughter of a wealthy noble, who is happy to be a hot and charming lesbian knight-at-arms but does not really want to be the murderous Knight any more than Simran wants to be the Witch. However, the plot begins, Simran is targeted by an Incarnation Murderer who kidnaps her best friend and challenges her to meet him on her Fated Mountain, and they of course have to go on a quest where they of course fall in love despite themselves and also learn more about why the current order must be overthrown because trying to preserve static, perfect versions of old stories is not only dooming a lot of people to extremely depressing fates but also slowly killing the Isle. This quest makes up the first part of the book.
I am very interested in the conversation that Tasha Suri is using this book to have about national narratives and national identities and the various stories, both old and new, that they attempt to simplify and erase. Her points, as I said, aren't subtle, but given Our Current Landscape there is a fair argument to be made that this is not the time for subtlety. I also think there's also some really good and sharp jokes and commentary about the National Narratives of Britain, specifically (evil ever-ruling Gloriana is SUCH a funny choice and the way this ends up being a mirror image for Arthuriana I think is quite fun as well).
On the other hand, the conversation is so big and the Themes so Thematic that they do end up entirely overshadowing the characters for me, which I do think is also a thematic failure. The first part of the book is about Vina and Simran's struggle to interact with each other and their lives as individuals, rather than the archetypes that overshadow them, but as Vina and Simran they also never quite felt like they transcended their own archetypes of Cranky Immigrant Witch and Charming Lesbian Knight With A Hero Complex. Which startled me, tbh, because I've liked several of Tasha Suri's previous books quite a lot and this hasn't struck me as a problem before. But I think here it's really highlighted for me by the struggle with Fate; I kept, perhaps unfairly, compare-contrasting with Princess Tutu, a work I love that's also about fighting with narrative archetypes, and how extremely specific Duck and Fakir and Rue feel as characters. I finished part one feeling like I still had no idea whether Vina and Simran had fallen in love as Fated Entities or as human beings distinct from their fate, and I think given the book this is it really needs to commit hard on that score one way or another.
Part two, I think, is much more interesting than part one, and changes up the status quo in unexpected ways. If I pretend that part one landed for me then I'm much happier to roll with the ride on part two, though there is an instance of Gay Found Family Syndrome that I found really funny; you can fix any concerning man with a sweet trans husband and a cottage and a baby!
genarti will argue with me that she thinks it was more complicated than that, to which I will argue, I think it could have been more complicated IF part two had had room to breathe and lean into any of those complexities. Making part one half its length and part two double its length would I think fix several of my problems with the book. "but you just said that Vina and Simran don't feel specific enough" yes that's true AND they take three hundred pages to do it! I'd be less annoyed about them feeling kind of flat if we were moving on more quickly to other things ... Anyway. I didn't find this book satisfying but I did find it interesting; others may find it to be both. Curious to talk about it with anyone else who's read it!
Sidenote: the Tales and Incarnations are maintained by archivists, who keep the island and the stories it contains static and weed out any narratives they think don't belong. This of course is evil. I went and complained about the evil archivist propaganda to
genarti, who read this book first, and she said 'read further.' So I did! It turns out that in contrast to the evil archivists, the woods are populated by good and righteous librarians!! who secretly collect oral histories and discarded tales that have been deemed subversive by the archivists but which of course the island needs to thrive. I do appreciate that not all institutional memory workers are Evil in this book and I understand the need in fiction to have a clear and easy distinguishing term between your good guys and your bad guys, but Tasha Suri, may I politely protest that this is in fact also archivist work -- Sidenote two: v. interesting to me that of the two big high-profile recent Arthurianas I've read the thing I've found most interesting about both of them is their use of the Questing Beast. we simply love a beast!!
Highlander Sequel Fic
Feb. 1st, 2026 01:07 pmsenmutAO3 Link | Closing Up Shop: Seacouver (1335 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: Highlander Movieverse, Highlander The Series
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Rachel Ellenstein [Highlander Movieverse], Joe Dawson [Highlander the Series]
Additional Tags: First Meetings, Post-The Gathering (Highlander)
Summary:
While Connor and Duncan were being themselves, Rachel was a little out of sorts. Tessa was a nice lady, one so recently brought into knowing what they were. However, Tessa was an artist, and driven currently by a piece that Rachel could already see would be lovely. The boy Richie was a little rash and Rachel didn't fully feel a connection to him yet, but she would work on that, after Connor explained why Duncan and Tessa were watching over him.
No, she just needed to be mindful of her own wishes and need to stretch her legs currently. Dinner could be for socializing. Right now, she had sights to see, stores to discover, and a need to be away from the casual masculinity contests the pair of cousins indulged themselves in during these infrequent reunions.
That in mind, Rachel turned her steps to a brisk walk in the same district the couple lived and worked in, ducking into shops as they caught her idea, pausing to sample the food about midmorning, and slowly circling back around.
A bookstore caught her eye, and she slipped within to browse, hopeful of something to keep her entertained until Connor decided they had played the game of risk long enough in this reunion.
She glanced over to the only other person present —
— and was thrown back to a lovely day spent with a kind young man.
She had not survived for so long as Connor's daughter and self-appointed protector from the world at large to give away her suspicion of the man's convenient location so near to Duncan when he had appeared in her life so close to the changing tides in Connor's own life. For half a moment, she almost wished Brenda had not decided Connor was too overwhelming, that it had been his wife on this trip instead of herself.
But she had never been a coward, and understood perfectly well why Connor and Brenda were separated now. She could — would — handle this meeting now upon her.
"Stepped away from your photography in favor of book collections, Mister Dawson?" she asked in a charming voice, letting her smile reflect the surprise of seeing a man of her past so far from where they had met.
"Miss Ellenstein, what a surprise." He stood, using the cane to do so, and Rachel added more details to the picture she was building. He was noticeably older, as she herself was, the reliance on the cane a bit more pronounced, but his smile was still making his face light up with disarming sincerity.
Who was Joe Dawson, that he was mortal and yet so close to the lives of those like her Connor?
"Also, the books are less finicky about lighting and framing," he added as he walked over to her. "Looking for anything of particular interest?"
"Browsing, actually, passing the time. It's an eclectic neighborhood, it seems."
"You could say that," Joe agreed. "If anything catches your eye, I am always up to negotiate with an astute antiquities dealer such as yourself."
That he was firmly the center of her attention was not something she betrayed, only smiling and moving on to browse.
"Perhaps we could find the dessert we had no room for in New York?" she offered as he was moving back to the table he'd been working from.
"I can think of nothing better for this evening."
Connor would tell her she was playing with fire, when there was something so far amiss. Rachel preferred to see it as gathering intelligence on potential flashpoints.
Rachel passed the first part of the meal with Joe in conversation about what she had seen, and he offered ideas of new places to visit while she was in town. As she played the tourist, she considered just how to go about learning why he was here, so close to Connor's cousin after she'd met him in the aftermath of Connor's endgame against the Kurgan.
As the dessert course was delivered, Rachel glanced over and caught Joe studying her. He gave the smile and bashful look for being caught, and she found herself responding to that on a level she deemed dangerous.
Not necessarily in a physical danger sense, but to Connor's safety, and that of Duncan and his chosen family, she decided firmly.
"I had the impression you were more easterly in your setting, when we first met," Rachel said, giving him the faintest smile.
"Better opportunities out this way for me." He took a bite, chased it with the wine, and then shifted his body language a little. Rachel wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but it put her more on guard. "What about you? No more restoration and purchasing of antiquities?"
"Here and there, but more by appointment with travel benefits." Rachel tried her own tiramisu, decided she could name three places that served better, and sipped her coffee to wash it down. "Retirement allows me more opportunities in many ways, to keep an eye on my interests."
"Most people choose to turn their attention to new things when they let go of their old lives," Joe mused. "I suppose there's exceptions to anything that could be normal about humans, though."
"I find it is a good life, to keep an eye on those people or events that stand out," she answered. "After all, even those of us that prefer to live life a day at a time might be caught up in extraordinary events."
Had that been a shading of his eyes, something in memory haunting him now? Did he have a person like Connor that had saved him, and that was how he was connected? It couldn't be Duncan; she'd mentioned stopping in the book shop and making this date in his hearing without a single spike of interest.
And Duncan, for all he was a veteran of his years, still had difficulty masking himself.
"To observe something is to change it, or be changed by it," Joe pointed out. "Getting caught up in the ways and lives of the unusual ones can be a difficult thing."
"I am certain that is so, but I learned as a child that just standing by doesn't keep you any safer, or those you care about," she said softly. "Which may be why I took to the antiquities so easily. Every object holds some story, if you can just trace the history of it. People can be much the same."
"Very true," Joe said, giving the faint smile and change of body posture to move the conversation away from this.
Who was the one for Joe? And was Joe scouting others to mark targets, or warn of danger? Rachel rather hoped it was the latter, as she asked his opinion of a local museum, letting the double-layered words drop for now.
"Have a good night?" Connor asked as he took her jacket from her.
"Waiting up for me?" Rachel retorted, before leaning in to kiss his cheek.
"Maybe."
"Yes."
He smiled, his eyes crinkling up as that little catching laugh came out, before he offered for her to precede him into the sitting room. She settled in a chair, listening, but it seemed Duncan and Tessa must be out from the quiet. She still wasn't certain if Richie actually lived here or was just in and out.
"I think he knows someone like you, but I also don't think he's a danger," Rachel said, meeting Connor's eyes.
"Then… I'll warn Duncan that he's been seen near us before, and hopefully my little cousin can be a sensible man about the risks he takes."
"Hmm, he's as much a MacLeod as you," she pointed out, getting a warm laugh in response.
"Hey, I can dream!" Connor rebutted. "We are still flying out tomorrow."
Rachel nodded. "For the best." She would also hope this did not cause Duncan new grief in the long run, but her duty was to Connor… even if Connor saw it the other way around.
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: Highlander Movieverse, Highlander The Series
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Rachel Ellenstein [Highlander Movieverse], Joe Dawson [Highlander the Series]
Additional Tags: First Meetings, Post-The Gathering (Highlander)
Summary:
And then a few years passed...
Closing Up Shop: Seacouver
While Connor and Duncan were being themselves, Rachel was a little out of sorts. Tessa was a nice lady, one so recently brought into knowing what they were. However, Tessa was an artist, and driven currently by a piece that Rachel could already see would be lovely. The boy Richie was a little rash and Rachel didn't fully feel a connection to him yet, but she would work on that, after Connor explained why Duncan and Tessa were watching over him.
No, she just needed to be mindful of her own wishes and need to stretch her legs currently. Dinner could be for socializing. Right now, she had sights to see, stores to discover, and a need to be away from the casual masculinity contests the pair of cousins indulged themselves in during these infrequent reunions.
That in mind, Rachel turned her steps to a brisk walk in the same district the couple lived and worked in, ducking into shops as they caught her idea, pausing to sample the food about midmorning, and slowly circling back around.
A bookstore caught her eye, and she slipped within to browse, hopeful of something to keep her entertained until Connor decided they had played the game of risk long enough in this reunion.
She glanced over to the only other person present —
— and was thrown back to a lovely day spent with a kind young man.
She had not survived for so long as Connor's daughter and self-appointed protector from the world at large to give away her suspicion of the man's convenient location so near to Duncan when he had appeared in her life so close to the changing tides in Connor's own life. For half a moment, she almost wished Brenda had not decided Connor was too overwhelming, that it had been his wife on this trip instead of herself.
But she had never been a coward, and understood perfectly well why Connor and Brenda were separated now. She could — would — handle this meeting now upon her.
"Stepped away from your photography in favor of book collections, Mister Dawson?" she asked in a charming voice, letting her smile reflect the surprise of seeing a man of her past so far from where they had met.
"Miss Ellenstein, what a surprise." He stood, using the cane to do so, and Rachel added more details to the picture she was building. He was noticeably older, as she herself was, the reliance on the cane a bit more pronounced, but his smile was still making his face light up with disarming sincerity.
Who was Joe Dawson, that he was mortal and yet so close to the lives of those like her Connor?
"Also, the books are less finicky about lighting and framing," he added as he walked over to her. "Looking for anything of particular interest?"
"Browsing, actually, passing the time. It's an eclectic neighborhood, it seems."
"You could say that," Joe agreed. "If anything catches your eye, I am always up to negotiate with an astute antiquities dealer such as yourself."
That he was firmly the center of her attention was not something she betrayed, only smiling and moving on to browse.
"Perhaps we could find the dessert we had no room for in New York?" she offered as he was moving back to the table he'd been working from.
"I can think of nothing better for this evening."
Connor would tell her she was playing with fire, when there was something so far amiss. Rachel preferred to see it as gathering intelligence on potential flashpoints.
Rachel passed the first part of the meal with Joe in conversation about what she had seen, and he offered ideas of new places to visit while she was in town. As she played the tourist, she considered just how to go about learning why he was here, so close to Connor's cousin after she'd met him in the aftermath of Connor's endgame against the Kurgan.
As the dessert course was delivered, Rachel glanced over and caught Joe studying her. He gave the smile and bashful look for being caught, and she found herself responding to that on a level she deemed dangerous.
Not necessarily in a physical danger sense, but to Connor's safety, and that of Duncan and his chosen family, she decided firmly.
"I had the impression you were more easterly in your setting, when we first met," Rachel said, giving him the faintest smile.
"Better opportunities out this way for me." He took a bite, chased it with the wine, and then shifted his body language a little. Rachel wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but it put her more on guard. "What about you? No more restoration and purchasing of antiquities?"
"Here and there, but more by appointment with travel benefits." Rachel tried her own tiramisu, decided she could name three places that served better, and sipped her coffee to wash it down. "Retirement allows me more opportunities in many ways, to keep an eye on my interests."
"Most people choose to turn their attention to new things when they let go of their old lives," Joe mused. "I suppose there's exceptions to anything that could be normal about humans, though."
"I find it is a good life, to keep an eye on those people or events that stand out," she answered. "After all, even those of us that prefer to live life a day at a time might be caught up in extraordinary events."
Had that been a shading of his eyes, something in memory haunting him now? Did he have a person like Connor that had saved him, and that was how he was connected? It couldn't be Duncan; she'd mentioned stopping in the book shop and making this date in his hearing without a single spike of interest.
And Duncan, for all he was a veteran of his years, still had difficulty masking himself.
"To observe something is to change it, or be changed by it," Joe pointed out. "Getting caught up in the ways and lives of the unusual ones can be a difficult thing."
"I am certain that is so, but I learned as a child that just standing by doesn't keep you any safer, or those you care about," she said softly. "Which may be why I took to the antiquities so easily. Every object holds some story, if you can just trace the history of it. People can be much the same."
"Very true," Joe said, giving the faint smile and change of body posture to move the conversation away from this.
Who was the one for Joe? And was Joe scouting others to mark targets, or warn of danger? Rachel rather hoped it was the latter, as she asked his opinion of a local museum, letting the double-layered words drop for now.
"Have a good night?" Connor asked as he took her jacket from her.
"Waiting up for me?" Rachel retorted, before leaning in to kiss his cheek.
"Maybe."
"Yes."
He smiled, his eyes crinkling up as that little catching laugh came out, before he offered for her to precede him into the sitting room. She settled in a chair, listening, but it seemed Duncan and Tessa must be out from the quiet. She still wasn't certain if Richie actually lived here or was just in and out.
"I think he knows someone like you, but I also don't think he's a danger," Rachel said, meeting Connor's eyes.
"Then… I'll warn Duncan that he's been seen near us before, and hopefully my little cousin can be a sensible man about the risks he takes."
"Hmm, he's as much a MacLeod as you," she pointed out, getting a warm laugh in response.
"Hey, I can dream!" Connor rebutted. "We are still flying out tomorrow."
Rachel nodded. "For the best." She would also hope this did not cause Duncan new grief in the long run, but her duty was to Connor… even if Connor saw it the other way around.
Good Omens: The Seduction Malfunction by iamtheenemy
Feb. 1st, 2026 12:56 pmkingstoken posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
fancakeFandom: Good Omens
Pairings/Characters: Aziraphale/Crowley
Rating: T
Length: 5437 words
Creator Links: iamtheenemy (Steph)
Theme: Inept in love
Summary: Crowley gets orders to seduce Aziraphale to the dark side. It goes about as well as you might expect.
Reccer's Notes: Crowley gets orders from Hell to seduce Aziraphale, and Crowley can't really bring himself to try, despite some half-hearted attempts. That's the first half of the fic, the second half is the two of them after the almost apocalypse, and it's very sweet, even if Crowley's brain stops functioning a few times.
Fanwork Links: AO3
Pairings/Characters: Aziraphale/Crowley
Rating: T
Length: 5437 words
Creator Links: iamtheenemy (Steph)
Theme: Inept in love
Summary: Crowley gets orders to seduce Aziraphale to the dark side. It goes about as well as you might expect.
Reccer's Notes: Crowley gets orders from Hell to seduce Aziraphale, and Crowley can't really bring himself to try, despite some half-hearted attempts. That's the first half of the fic, the second half is the two of them after the almost apocalypse, and it's very sweet, even if Crowley's brain stops functioning a few times.
Fanwork Links: AO3
London exhibition trip
Feb. 1st, 2026 05:46 pmdolorosa_12Matthias and I got back from London about an hour ago. We had a great time, but the Saturday portion of the trip was beset by an almost comical calvacade of chaos. (It's worth noting that we planned everything over a month in advance, with military precision — National Rail website and Google Maps open, planning every event with ample time in mind.) In list form:
The restaurant where we were booked to eat on Saturday night sent Matthias an email at 6am on Saturday saying that 'due to circumstances beyond our control,' they were 'closing permanently' as of Saturday.
When we opened the National Rail website to check that our train was still running (something we had checked and confirmed, as trains on this line on weekends are not always a given due to various pieces of track work), it showed no trains going to London at all. After some trial and error entering different start and destination points, we realised we'd be able to go to Cambridge North, then get on a train going to London Liverpool Street, get off at Tottenham Hale, and get the Tube on to our original destination. But this was going to make us late to our first booked exhibition at the British Museum.
I tried to phone the British Museum to check if being late would be a problem, but their phone box office is only staffed Monday-Friday.
Every seat on the train filled up at Cambridge North, and by the time we got to Cambridge main station, which was packed with a scrum of people wanting to go to London, all available standing spaces were filled. At each new station, I could see the crowds of people (for whom this is normally a very uncrowded train in to London) visibly spotting how full the train was and their faces falling in horror. We got later and later as more and more passengers tried to Tetris their way in at each new station.
We ran through the Tube, then found our way partly blocked by the weekly protest about Gaza, which I'd forgotten always started around Russell Square.
The British Museum had massive snaking queues to get through security. (Our original itinerary had us arriving there about forty-five minutes early, with time to get through the queue, which we knew would be long on a Saturday, drop off our bags, and amble into the first exhibition.) By the time we made it in, dropped our bags and coats in the cloakroom, and got to the first exhibition, we were half an hour later than intended.
We then whipped our way through the two exhibitions at absolute breakneck speed, so that we wouldn't be late to our lunch reservation (where I had had to provide card details when booking, so I knew they would charge me if we didn't show up). Half an hour per exhibition wasn't really enough time, but I'm impressed we managed it at all!
Lunch and the next exhibition at the Tate Modern were both fine, and happened as planned (I was particularly pleased that we managed to walk from Bloomsbury to the Tate, make it inside before it started raining, and emerge about an hour and a half later to find the rain had moved on, just in time for us to walk for forty minutes to our hotel! I now return to the ongoing chaos:
I always have a list of restaurants lined up that I want to try, so when we got the email cancelling our previous reservation I had another one in the list. This one didn't take reservations at all, but said that if no tables were available, you could get a drink at their bar or give your number to waitstaff and they'd phone you when a table became free, but I had forgotten that a) this was a stupid thing to risk in Soho on a Saturday night and b) that this place had become massively overhyped on social media, so when we got there, there was a queue of about fifteen groups lining up outside the door — no chance even to get inside and get a drink as promised! — and it was about to start raining again.
Some very quick work with my remaining list of restaurants and I managed to snag a booking for a place at 6.30pm at a pasta restaurant I had wanted to try. The only problem — at that point it was 6.25pm, so we sprinted down the street in the rain, and made it there in time to take the reservation.
And then they accidentally gave my dinner to a woman at the table next to us, and her dinner to me! This was rectified in about fifteen minutes, but it was definitely the crowning glory in a day that was characterised by chaos from start to finish.
Sunday, in contrast, was calm and lovely — breakfast in a little cafe with views of the Thames, the Lee Miller exhibition at Tate Britain (spectacular — if you have the ability to be in London before it closes, go if you can), where we inevitably bumped into a former colleague of Matthias and her husband, lunch in a sort of upmarket food court a minute away from Liverpool Street Station, and then a much less crowded train ride home.
I'm glad we went, but that was a lot more everything than I had expected! And I still haven't managed to try the hyped viral Thai restaurant in Soho...
Lunch and the next exhibition at the Tate Modern were both fine, and happened as planned (I was particularly pleased that we managed to walk from Bloomsbury to the Tate, make it inside before it started raining, and emerge about an hour and a half later to find the rain had moved on, just in time for us to walk for forty minutes to our hotel! I now return to the ongoing chaos:
Sunday, in contrast, was calm and lovely — breakfast in a little cafe with views of the Thames, the Lee Miller exhibition at Tate Britain (spectacular — if you have the ability to be in London before it closes, go if you can), where we inevitably bumped into a former colleague of Matthias and her husband, lunch in a sort of upmarket food court a minute away from Liverpool Street Station, and then a much less crowded train ride home.
I'm glad we went, but that was a lot more everything than I had expected! And I still haven't managed to try the hyped viral Thai restaurant in Soho...
Round 183: Inept in Love
Feb. 1st, 2026 08:45 amrunpunkrun posting in fancake
Bring out your failboats! Our theme for February is inept in love.
These fools are unlucky in love—whether it's due to inexperience, obliviousness, social anxiety, or their own terrible choices—or are so in love they can't function properly. This trope is sometimes called "Idiots in Love," but as "idiot" is an ableist term, I ask that you don't use it in your recs, and just as there are all kinds of love, this theme is for all kinds of relationships.
The tag for this round is: theme: inept in love
If you're just joining us, be sure to check out our policy on content notes. Content notes aren't required, but they're nice to include in your recs, especially if a fanwork has untagged content that readers may wish to know about in advance.
( Rules! )
( Posting Template! )
( Promote this round! )
Fanfiction: The Outsider (The Goes Wrong Show)
Feb. 1st, 2026 01:43 pmrionaleonhartThis is another Goes Wrong Show fic that started life as a fill for the Three-Sentence Ficathon! My worst failure to keep to three sentences yet; this version is slightly expanded, but the original fill was still over a thousand words.
The original prompt was 'outsider POV'. I originally started thinking about using an original character, and then it hit me that, as Vanessa joined later than the rest of the company, she could be the outsider.
Title: The Outsider
Fandom: The Goes Wrong Show
Rating: G
Wordcount: 1,600
Summary: How did Vanessa end up joining the Cornley Drama Society?
( The Outsider )
The original prompt was 'outsider POV'. I originally started thinking about using an original character, and then it hit me that, as Vanessa joined later than the rest of the company, she could be the outsider.
Title: The Outsider
Fandom: The Goes Wrong Show
Rating: G
Wordcount: 1,600
Summary: How did Vanessa end up joining the Cornley Drama Society?
( The Outsider )
January Round Up (12,151 Words, 15 Works)
Jan. 31st, 2026 11:02 pmsenmutSolo Series Updates, by fandom, by posting date
( Series Updates )
Single fics, by fandom, by posting date (related fandoms may be organized by chronology)
( Single fics )
New Original Works posted atsylph_and_asp this month
( Original Works )
( Series Updates )
Single fics, by fandom, by posting date (related fandoms may be organized by chronology)
( Single fics )
New Original Works posted at
sylph_and_asp this month( Original Works )
Monthly Check In
Jan. 31st, 2026 10:57 pmsenmut| Words | Goal Per Day: 500 | Full Count: 44,089 | Average Count: 1,422 |
| Steps | Goal Per Day: 6,000 | Full Count: 256,300 | Average Count: 8,267 |
| Headaches | * | * | Total: 13 days |
Writing 0 days count: 0
Steps days under average count: 1
Three Sentence Ficathon recs
Feb. 1st, 2026 02:42 pmlucymonster posting in recthethingI've shared a bunch of recs from this year's threesentenceficathon here at my journal! Fandoms include Dr Seuss, Emily Wilde, Leverage, Narnia, Original Work and Star Wars.
threesentenceficathon here at my journal! Fandoms include Dr Seuss, Emily Wilde, Leverage, Narnia, Original Work and Star Wars.2025 Snowflake Wrap-up Post
Jan. 31st, 2026 12:41 pmflorianschild posting in snowflake_challengeWe've reached the closing curtain of our beautiful Snowflake Challenge 2026. It's been a whirlwind month of fun, community, and lots of creativity! One of the best parts of this challenge is that it truly lives up to its name and its original inspiration: every single year that we come together to celebrate is a unique circumstance of participants, mods, prompts, graphics, challenges, and celebrations. Every year is a unique snowflake in and of itself, never again to be replicated in the exact same pattern. I hope everyone felt some enjoyment and appreciation during the past month, and of course please continue to post your responses and fills because there is no deadline to this challenge!
Thank you so much to all the participants. Thank you especially to those who took the time to interact with fellow participants and make the community feel so alive! And of course thank you to all the mods who went above and beyond and especially totjs_whatnot, our co-admin who has worked really hard this month to keep everything running smoothly.
We do have a poll below to get your feedback on the challenge, if that's something you're interested in doing. We really appreciate it and we take all your responses into consideration when planning for next year.
Peace and happy late winter season to all!
( Poll under the cut! )
Thank you so much to all the participants. Thank you especially to those who took the time to interact with fellow participants and make the community feel so alive! And of course thank you to all the mods who went above and beyond and especially to
tjs_whatnot, our co-admin who has worked really hard this month to keep everything running smoothly.We do have a poll below to get your feedback on the challenge, if that's something you're interested in doing. We really appreciate it and we take all your responses into consideration when planning for next year.
Peace and happy late winter season to all!
( Poll under the cut! )
2026 Fandom Snowflake Challenge Friending Meme
Jan. 31st, 2026 09:01 amtjs_whatnot posting in snowflake_challengeIntroduction Post
Meet the Mods Post
Challenge #1
Challenge #2
Challenge #3
Challenge #4
Challenge #5
Challenge #6
Challenge #7
Challenge #8
Challenge #9
Challenge #10
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Challenge #13
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Challenge #15
The post-Snowflake Friending Meme has been such a rousing success that we’ve made it a permanent fixture here at the Fandom Snowflake Challenge, so come and make some new friends!
Just copy and paste the template into a comment; include as much or as little info about yourself as you want.
After you've done that, go through and read other people's comments and either strike up a conversation here, or take your mutual interests to each other's journals and new, shiny friends.
[We’re using an updated comment template, which was originally created byrubytuesday5681 for the the_neverenders community and adapted for use here.]
Spread the word by sharing the above banner:
( alternate banner )
Meet the Mods Post
Challenge #1
Challenge #2
Challenge #3
Challenge #4
Challenge #5
Challenge #6
Challenge #7
Challenge #8
Challenge #9
Challenge #10
Challenge #11
Challenge #12
Challenge #13
Challenge #14
Challenge #15
The post-Snowflake Friending Meme has been such a rousing success that we’ve made it a permanent fixture here at the Fandom Snowflake Challenge, so come and make some new friends!
Just copy and paste the template into a comment; include as much or as little info about yourself as you want.
After you've done that, go through and read other people's comments and either strike up a conversation here, or take your mutual interests to each other's journals and new, shiny friends.
[We’re using an updated comment template, which was originally created by
rubytuesday5681 for the the_neverenders community and adapted for use here.]Spread the word by sharing the above banner:
( alternate banner )
A Controlled Situation In Which I Am Prepared For Horniness.
Jan. 31st, 2026 01:18 pmrionaleonhartMy housemates read Educational Experiences, my 'the Cornley Drama Society have an orgy' Goes Wrong Show fic, in the wake of which we had an incredible discussion on the subject. The fic itself fades to black, but we had a lot of ideas about how disastrously a Cornley Drama Society orgy might actually play out, all of which delighted me!
( Discussing the hypothetical Orgy That Goes Wrong. )
For something non-orgy-related, I saw a poll on Tumblr asking 'Would you give your blorbo a gentle kiss on the forehead?', and I'm surprised by how few people are saying no! (At the moment, with around 1,000 votes, it's at 92% yes to 8% no.)
As I noted in the tags of my reblog, I'm not sure a gentle forehead kiss would be received well by most of my blorbos. Squall would find it unbearably awkward. Light would hate it and, moreover, would not deserve it. Robert Grove would in theory be fine with a forehead kiss, but he would interpret the gentleness as weakness; he'd probably start trying to coach me on giving a more powerful and therefore objectively better forehead kiss. A proper forehead kiss should ideally knock your opponent to the floor. ('Wait, the person I'm kissing is my opponent?' Yes. The forehead kiss is a power struggle that you must win.)
( Discussing the hypothetical Orgy That Goes Wrong. )
For something non-orgy-related, I saw a poll on Tumblr asking 'Would you give your blorbo a gentle kiss on the forehead?', and I'm surprised by how few people are saying no! (At the moment, with around 1,000 votes, it's at 92% yes to 8% no.)
As I noted in the tags of my reblog, I'm not sure a gentle forehead kiss would be received well by most of my blorbos. Squall would find it unbearably awkward. Light would hate it and, moreover, would not deserve it. Robert Grove would in theory be fine with a forehead kiss, but he would interpret the gentleness as weakness; he'd probably start trying to coach me on giving a more powerful and therefore objectively better forehead kiss. A proper forehead kiss should ideally knock your opponent to the floor. ('Wait, the person I'm kissing is my opponent?' Yes. The forehead kiss is a power struggle that you must win.)
due South: Ch-ch-changes by mizface
Feb. 1st, 2026 12:41 ammific posting in fancakeFandom: due South
Characters/Pairings: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski, Ray Kowalski & Ray Vecchio, Diefenbaker, Buck Frobisher, Maggie McKenzie
Rating: Mature
Length: 26,124 for the main fic, 28,647 for the series
Content Notes: Creator chose not to warn. This has at least a hopeful ending, but the fic is about zombies and Ray kills and eats at least one victim, plus there are some slightly gross descriptions in places. Way less gore etc. than most zombie stories, though.
Creator Links: mizface on AO3
Themes: Crack treated seriously, Friends to lovers, Friendship, Complete AU, Zombies, (Not really) character death, Epistolary fic
Summary: Ray Kowalski thought he had an okay existence: he had a place to call home, didn't have to worry about a job, and nobody bothered him. If it wasn't for the fact that he was a zombie, things would have been pretty good.
Then he met very much alive Benton Fraser, and his whole world was turned upside down.
Reccer's Notes: And the trifecta of cracky fantasy creatures: zombies. This story's based on the movie Warm Bodies, which also takes the cracky zombie premise kind of seriously, in a romantic way. Zombies are usually shown as mindless ravening hordes, but in this story both Rays have been zombified but haven't completely lost themselves. Here, zombies are called "the infected", and both Rays begin to mysteriously improve across the story, regaining more speech and cognitive ability. Apart from the relationship with Fraser that develops - and we also access Fraser's POV from his journal entries - there's a nice friendship between the Rays. There's one major story, followed by a number of short fics adding to the 'verse. A rather lovely and poignant take on zombies, that more seriously explores a possible at least partial recovery from that state, and developing relationships.
Fanwork Links: Ch-ch-changes, and the series
Characters/Pairings: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski, Ray Kowalski & Ray Vecchio, Diefenbaker, Buck Frobisher, Maggie McKenzie
Rating: Mature
Length: 26,124 for the main fic, 28,647 for the series
Content Notes: Creator chose not to warn. This has at least a hopeful ending, but the fic is about zombies and Ray kills and eats at least one victim, plus there are some slightly gross descriptions in places. Way less gore etc. than most zombie stories, though.
Creator Links: mizface on AO3
Themes: Crack treated seriously, Friends to lovers, Friendship, Complete AU, Zombies, (Not really) character death, Epistolary fic
Summary: Ray Kowalski thought he had an okay existence: he had a place to call home, didn't have to worry about a job, and nobody bothered him. If it wasn't for the fact that he was a zombie, things would have been pretty good.
Then he met very much alive Benton Fraser, and his whole world was turned upside down.
Reccer's Notes: And the trifecta of cracky fantasy creatures: zombies. This story's based on the movie Warm Bodies, which also takes the cracky zombie premise kind of seriously, in a romantic way. Zombies are usually shown as mindless ravening hordes, but in this story both Rays have been zombified but haven't completely lost themselves. Here, zombies are called "the infected", and both Rays begin to mysteriously improve across the story, regaining more speech and cognitive ability. Apart from the relationship with Fraser that develops - and we also access Fraser's POV from his journal entries - there's a nice friendship between the Rays. There's one major story, followed by a number of short fics adding to the 'verse. A rather lovely and poignant take on zombies, that more seriously explores a possible at least partial recovery from that state, and developing relationships.
Fanwork Links: Ch-ch-changes, and the series
Tags: