sealie | Reading

Hostess Donettes claim to be "America's #1 Mini-donut" but I don't remember there being a nationwide referendum. Just another example of the rampant corruption going on right before our very eyes.

sholio

Stolen / respectfully borrowed from

rionaleonhart, a Tumblr meme now removed from its native ecosystem and repotted on DW [ETA: now tweaked a bit]:

Give me any two (or more) characters from a canon I’m familiar with, and I’ll tell you how they would cope in an ‘oh no, there’s only one bed’ scenario!

What you get might be anything from brief headcanons/thoughts to a small fic, depending on how much I have to say about those particular characters.

(Currently traveling, staying overnight on the road, would enjoy some fun distraction.)

Update: Based on how the comments are going, I edited the instructions slightly to hopefully bend the requests a little more towards characters from the same canon. (If you want two characters from different canons, feel free to ask for it - there are no wrong answers, it's very open-ended - but I'm really only going to be able to do headcanons for those, as I can't easily write crossovers, and I'm hoping for some of the other kind of prompts too!)

esteefee

You guyssssss I felt a profound sense of satisfaction for completing the Three Weeks challenge and very much enjoyed my long weekend after an exasperating work week only to discover I had one post left! Oh noes!

Fortunately,

runpunkrun and

mific gave me something to post about! They did an awesome mcshep collab while I was away and what a treat! So awesome to have terrific art and podfic and story as one. Like the fandom days of old *sobs in old-timey*

It was a marvelous distraction from my usual hobby of staring in blank horror at the news. Speaking of which...

I beg everyone to please contact your senators about the Big PoS Bill! For too many reasons, but also because I just found out it includes sneaky provisions that completely undermine the judiciary, including *retroactively* making previous rulings and court orders unenforceable! Such as, oh, orders to return US Citizens and illegally deported immigrants from overseas gulags. The administration is angry at the lower courts for ruling against them, so they are trying to use Congress to render the judiciary impotent. See Section 70302 of One Big Beautiful Bill Act 119th Congress (2025-2026). Not to mention, of course, the bill raises taxes on the poorest, adds trillions to the deficit, drops the tax on gun silencers (what?), chops SNAP, medicare, and medicaid, and lines the pockets of the already wealthy with more and more tax cuts. I want to puke.

If you live the US, please CONTACT YOUR SENATORS and tell them you are so very against this Big Ugly Bill for more reasons than can be counted. Tell them to kill it or they will smell your vengeance come midterms.

Thanks, my friends.

mific posting in

fancake

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay, Jeannie Miller, Kaleb Miller, Madison Miller
Rating: Teen
Length: 5753
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply
Creator Links: sardonicsmiley on AO3
Themes: Angst with a happy ending, Family, Established relationship

Summary: Sooner or later, Rodney just gets under your skin.

Reccer's Notes:
The angst in this one isn't romantic, as John and Rodney's relationship (shown indirectly) is solid. No, this is about the fraught relationship Rodney has with his sister, Jeannie, who often gives him a hard time in canon and teases or belittles him. In this story we see a series of visits back to Earth where John and Rodney stay at Jeannie's, with John increasingly fed up with how Jeannie treats Rodney and finally letting her know. There's some very nice steely-eyed John here, and Rodney is both a BAMF and absolutely there for his family. The ending is happy, with Jeannie finally fully supportive in return. A great read.

Fanwork Links: How the Millers Relaxed and Learned to Love Rodney (With A Little Help from John Sheppard)

sholio

Currently traveling, but I finished a thing!

I got a prompt on Tumblr earlier this month for a roleswap AU with Londo & G'Kar. I wrote a short ficlet for it a few days ago, then was promptly seized by the urge to write the entire story that goes with it.

Gift on AO3 (2,953 words, Babylon 5, gen)
Mid season four. Narns deliver a gift to G'Kar. He does not appreciate it in the slightest.
(A roleswap AU of sorts, set around the same general time frame as "No Surrender, No Retreat" in canon, in which reconciliation occurs from a completely different and even more fraught direction.)

( 3000-ish words of chains and reluctant h/c )

mific posting in

fancake

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: Genfic, John Sheppard & Rodney McKay, Original female character
Rating: G
Length: 8103
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply
Creator Links: Sholio on AO3, Sholio's own site City on the Ocean's Edge
Themes: Angst with a happy ending, Friendship, Families of choice

Summary: The old guy in Room 30B was about the most disagreeable human being that the nurses had ever met. But he did get visitors, including a retired Air Force Colonel.

Reccer's Notes: This is told through the outsider POV of a young volunteer nurse at a retirement home, writing out what happened - for herself, but she tells it as though talking to her mother, who died some time before. Because of that, it's not at first as angsty as it might be, as she doesn't initially like or care about the cantankerous old guy in room 30B. That changes a little as the story progresses, and of course, we feel the angst even if she doesn't, knowing this is Rodney who's old, increasingly frail, and basically dying, while John, not quite as aged and infirm, watches helplessly. Despite herself, the young volunteer gets invested in Rodney, partly as she has enough spirit to stand up to him, which he likes. Also, before he gets really ill he tutors her in his abrasive way as she's had a difficult life and is studying for her high school diploma hoping to eventually go to med school - but until Rodney helps, she's not doing too well. Eventually there's a happy ending, but not before those closest to Rodney like John, Sam, and Elizabeth have grieved for him and come close to despair. Luckily, Teyla and Ronon are on the case, back in Pegasus. The ending is very satisfying, where we see what becomes of Annie, the volunteer nurse who cared for Rodney and put up with him at his worst.

Fanwork Links: Old Soldiers Die Hard

sholio

1. Biggles - Biggles/EvS flirting/pre-ship + a long-suffering Algy

Prompt: EvS flirts with a mark to distract him, and Biggles has Feelings about it?

Originally posted here

( 500 words of flirting and Algy making faces about it )

2. Biggles - Erich + Biggles enemy-era h/c

Prompt: Biggles is giving his standard "You're too good for this, reconsider your nefarious ways" speech to EvS but wholly unexpectedly/uncharacteristically EvS just starts crying in response (feverish delirium? drugged? exhausted? drunk?) and now a flummoxed Biggles has to contend with a sobbing nemesis and (horror) Emotions

Originally posted here

( 1000 words of awkward crying )

3. Babylon 5 - Susan & Delenn post-series

Prompt: Susan / Delenn after the show ends. You might have to wait to finish the whole thing for full context. Anything. They just deserve to be happy.

(The resulting fic is basically gen, but could be pre-ship.)

Originally posted here

( 500 words of gentle post-canon bonding )

sholio

unsent_letters_exchange author reveals are out, and my shockingly unsurprising entry is Eloquent (Biggles/EvS, 2100 words).

In other recent exchange developments, I joined in the Mismatched Tropes flash exchange and got two lovely small gifts: A Safe Landing (Biggles wingfic) and Cuddly Circumstances (B5, Londo & Vir, literal cuddle pollen).

There is also this thoroughly satisfying snippet written by

philomytha for a prompt I left her: Any Biggles characters, revolutions.

esteefee

Today I had a bowl of cornflakes for breakfast, my first in a long time, and I realized I slice up my banana the exact same way my pops did: diagonal cuts so the slices fall off the knife instead of sticking to it. I don't remember deciding to adopt his method. But there you go.

How do you slice your banana? Are there other tricks you picked up from parents or friends unconsciously?

esteefee

So what is absolutely stunning to me but shouldn't be, is we have regressed! Regressed but it's packaged as progress, and I went along with it every step of the way like a little lamb. But no more! I'm tired of this commercialism crappy, and when I say this is absolutely the last iteration of laundry detergent I will buy, I mean it!

It's not my fault, I swear, I went from mom buying the detergent at home, to college, where I followed in her footsteps. She swore by Tide, possibly on the advice of one of her new American friends.

First this Tide:
The familiar old tide box with a bullseye in orange and yellow and Tide in a slanted san-serif blue font.

The familiar old tide box with a bullseye in orange and yellow and Tide in a slanted san-serif blue font.

A white powder with cleaning surfactants, sodium carbonate and sodium silicate to soften the water, also possibly bleach and enzymes to break down food stains, and suds reducers and brighteners and fragrances and such.

Then came the innovative! Liquid in jugs! Wow! Just an excuse to charge more, I think. What was wrong with the powder? Oh, because then you could more successfully rub it in your stains beforehand I guess. I dunno. But jugs meant no more cardboard, just plastic, plastic, plastic:

A big orange jug of Tide with a bullseye in orange and yellow and Tide in a slanted san-serif blue font. The cap is blue

A big orange jug of Tide with a bullseye in orange and yellow and Tide in a slanted san-serif blue font. The cap is blue

Then, of course, they came out with pods of the liquid. But the pods were even more ridiculous, because some of them came in plastic jugs as well! And! And, it turns out the pods don't melt entirely: they introduce microplastics into the water system as well as the plastic containers getting tossed in the landfill. Oh, joy. (I skipped the pod step. Maybe because some people were reported to have eaten them. I feared becoming a tide zombie.)

So people tried to solve the pod problem by coming up with sheets! And we were so eager to embrace strips/sheets because they came in cardboard sleeves (I am an eco-warrior!) and weighed absolutely nothing on the walk down to the laundry room, we didn't discover until later that the strips themselves were bonded together with microplastics. (*They often contain polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), a plastic-based polymer, which some manufacturers claim is biodegradable, but its biodegradability is questionable and not well-studied.) Oh, woe!

So, Self, does anyone make, I dunno, powdered detergent that comes in a box? Why, yes! Wouldn't you know. So many different ones. I found one called Meliora that's low-sudsing and unscented and literally takes a tablespoon to clean a giant double-load of clothes and my clothes smell *fantastic*. One tablespoon. Jeez, I mean. It comes in a cardboard tin that you can refill from a cardboard box and I will never, ever step away from powdered plain old surfactant again.

My long laundry journey is done.
A round white tin of Meliora Laundry Powder with the ingredients listed on the front, and a large circle in light blue on the front to indicate unscented.

A round white tin of Meliora Laundry Powder with the ingredients listed on the front, and a large circle in light blue on the front to indicate unscented.

(And wouldn't you know it, and this just kills me, but Tide still makes):
Tide original powder in a bright orange box with the familiar bullseye logo.

kingstoken posting in

fancake

Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (tagged as both books and Granada)
Pairings/Characters: Holmes/Watson
Rating: E
Length: 13,317 words
Creator Links: rudbeckia
Theme: Angst with a Happy Ending, courting

Summary: Watson, finally pushed away by Holmes’s lack of regard for his feelings, has left 221B Baker Street and moved into his practice. Holmes is confused—he did nothing wrong! But when Holmes realises (because everyone who gives him advice tells him so) that he is to blame, he knows he has to do something meaningful to win Watson back.

Reccer's Notes: Watson gets tried of Holmes' mistreatment and decides to leave Baker St. Much angst in the beginning, but also a Holmes determined to get his Watson back, cue the wooing! I enjoyed the inclusion of side characters like Mrs Hudson, Mycroft and Lestrade, and there was also an original character, a woman doctor who works with Watson, that I greatly enjoyed. It is tagged as both books and Granada, but I pictured the Granada lads when reading it.

Fanwork Links: AO3

esteefee

omg you guys. you guys.

so this is

runpunkrun 's fault, because she posted about Staged, so naturally I wanted to watch it. I've been wanting to for a while but imdb wasn't helpful bec they said for the longest that I had to subscribe to britbox which, I wish.

Anyway, Punk recommended https://Kanopy.com, a service where you use your local library card to log in and stream stuff. I did not know this was an option. What a wonder.

Of course, when I tried, they gave me guff about my library card, which I haven't used in ages because I can no longer read paper. So I called my library. And in times when corporate America is experiencing record high profits and is STILL scaling back on weekend/off-hours support, the San Francisco Public Library picked up at 2pm on a Sunday to answer my call.

And of course the librarian was the absolute sweetest and fixed a number of problems with my account and wished me luck with Kanopy and told me to call back if I ran into any problems.

Librarians, I swear: proof that humanity is of the good.

Anyway, I'm sure all of you knew all of this already, but it certainly bears repeating. And I've watched exactly 2 minutes of David Tennant and Michael Sheen being gloriously ridiculous together on screen and my Sunday is SET.

Thank you, SFPL and Punk!

💖💖💖

Michael Sheen with his head thrown back and David Tennant leaning on one hand with his head turned toward the side in a split screen, the opening scene from Staged episode 1.

Michael Sheen with his head thrown back and David Tennant leaning on one hand with his head turned toward the side in a split screen, the opening scene from Staged episode 1.

"I could be Welsh."

*laughs* "We'd never have you."

"You'd love to have me. You'd beg to have me."

sholio

Curious what the original B5 plan was before all the cast changes/brushes with cancellation, I went hunting for it and I found an absolutely fascinating rundown of the original 10 (not 5)-year synopsis from a message board, summarized from JMS's script books.

Because this is on a message board from 2008, I'm going to copy it below the cut to avoid having it vanish due to link decay. I found it here:

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/synopsis-of-jmss-synopsis-of-the-original-arc-for-b5-spoilers.53739/

( Original 10-year synopsis and my comments )

Thoughts?

garryowen posting in

fancake

Fandom: Star Trek AOS
Pairings/Characters: Kirk/Spock
Rating: Teen +
Length: 11,213
Creator Links: BC_Brynn at AO3
Theme: Angst with a happy ending.

Summary: My name is S’chn T’gai Spock, and I am six years old. At the age of twenty-nine, I have been involved in an accident that has reduced my physical age and erased my memories accordingly.

Reccer's Notes: Usually, in stories about aging, one partner/beloved grows old, but in this one, Spock finds himself a child again. Despite losing many memories, he knows and remembers Jim, and he is absolutely determined to get back to him. But he has to grow up first. There are a lot of challenges along the way.

What I admire about this story is that both the author and the narrator (Spock) have such singular focus and total commitment to the project. One of the issues the story takes on--and what sets it apart, IMO--is the way that a slightly different upbringing and life path create a different person. It also addresses the sacrifices one must make to achieve a goal. It's absolutely heartbreaking. But, as this theme specifies, there is a happy ending. Also, of course, it's got big meant-to-be energy!

Fanwork Links: A Guiding Star

runpunkrun posting in

fancake

mific posting in

fancake

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Rating: Teen
Length: 617
Content Notes: no AO3-type warnings apply
Creator Links: Auburn on AO3, Auburn's old eternalvox website on Wayback
Themes: Angst with a happy ending, Established relationship

Summary: John might walk into the water and disappear like a changeling from some bastard fairy tale; everything rich and strange he’d given Rodney fading like magic without him, lost.

Reccer's Notes: Angst with a happy ending can be compact as well. We start the story with hints of John having been through something traumatic, but we never know what (and given Pegasus, take your pick). Or maybe they've lost Atlantis. It's from Rodney's point of view, his angst, and I love the unknowns here, the lyricism and pain, finally resolved in a storm's wild beauty.

Fanwork Links: Not Near the Sea

sholio

I watched the first two episodes of the Murderbot show. With no particular associated feelings about the books, I'm really enjoying it!

( Some things about that )

runpunkrun posting in

fancake

Poll #33132 round 175 theme poll

This poll is closed.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 108

Pick the next theme of fancake:

Female Relationships
56 (51.9%)

Just Like Canon
23 (21.3%)

Sunshine & Grumpy
29 (26.9%)

sholio

The Bodyguard Protocol, my post-canon Babylon 5 fixit (for one particular story thread), is now complete at 17K. (There may be a sequel in the works with further aftercare/comfort for everything I put them through.) This is not only the longest thing I've written for these characters, but apparently the longest thing I've written since 2022.

As per my AO3 stats, I've already posted almost as many words in 2025 as I did in all of 2024.

And I'm doing exchanges again!

unsent_letters_exchange revealed yesterday, and I received this lovely MASH fic (a follow-up to Sons & Bowlers) that I really enjoyed. Somewhere in the exchange collection, of course, is a very surprising, not at all predictable story written by me.

esteefee

You guys you guyyyyyyys look what popped up on my notifs! the wait is finally over!!!

AppleTV ad for Murderbot series starring Alexander Skarsgård with his head springing off a broken robot. Details about the show streaming weekly on Friday nights starting May 16th are in bold against a white background.