hamsterwoman: (Taskmaster -- Munya)
hamsterwoman ([personal profile] hamsterwoman) wrote2025-09-20 04:15 pm

Taskmaster s20e2 and part 6 (and last) of the Worldcon write-up

Taskmaster s20e02 -- More, with spoilers )

Ania was apparently doing doodles in the downtime between tasks, and has doodled all of her tasks and the various in-studio tasks. She has been sharing these on her Insta, and they are also being linked to on Reddit: episode 1 and episode 2 so far.

I think I'm going to just finish TMNZ s6 after the current main TM series wraps up, like I did last time. 3 TM episodes + 1 rewatch with [personal profile] lunasariel proved a bit much outside of bingeing mode. I know who won TMNZ, and that also made me less excited to finish it, so it'll keep, and make the wait for the next thing (NYT, presumably, although according to people who went to s21 studio recordings this past week, CoC 4 is going to be filming studio in November, so that's probably also coming soon).

*

And finally, let me finish up the Worldcon write-up before I embark on the next set of adventures.

Earlier parts are here:
- part 1: Tues/Wed,
- part 2: Thursday
- part 3: first part of Friday
- part 4: rest of Friday, first part of Saturday (Ada Palmer motherlode)
- part 5: Saturday, Hugo awards and related thoughts

Sunday, Aug 17: panels and Dealer Room )

And that was the last of my panels for Worldcon -- and also the last of ALL panels for Worldcon, because I certainly got my membership's worth of panels :D

Dinner with queenlua )
Hotel and Monday morning flight )

A few final photos )

So, yay, a very successful Worldcon, despite the bonus Covid infection. No regrets on any panels or events I attended, just low-key frustration with not being able to be in two places at once, and warm "next time" feelings about hanging out with [personal profile] tabacoychanel in person for the first time, Doing a Con as part of a group that was living together, and getting to see/chat with authors/people whose stuff I didn't make it to.

Seriously tempted to do it again next year in LA...
veronyxk84: Editor icon for su_herald (_Herald Editor#1)
VeroNyxK84 ([personal profile] veronyxk84) wrote in [community profile] su_herald2025-09-20 11:59 pm

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Saturday, September 20

SPIKE: You lookin' for me?
BUFFY: Really not.
SPIKE: Oh. Right then. Off you go. Did you cry?
BUFFY: What?
SPIKE: The wedding. Two hearts joined for eternity, great pelting showers of rice and so forth.
BUFFY: You didn't hear.
SPIKE: What? Families get out of hand? Tear the place apart?
BUFFY: No. Well, yes, absolutely. But... Xander left. The wedding didn't happen.
SPIKE: Well. Gotta say... I didn't see that coming. (sits on a bench)
BUFFY: It was awful. (sits nearby) Anya was devastated.
SPIKE: Is that right.
BUFFY: And, Xander... thinks maybe they can still get back together, but... he hurt her a lot.
SPIKE: Yeah, well... some people can't see a good thing when they've got it.

~~BtVS 6x17 “Normal Again”~~



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full_metal_ox: A gold Chinese Metal Ox zodiac charm. (Default)
full_metal_ox ([personal profile] full_metal_ox) wrote in [community profile] fancake2025-09-20 03:31 pm

Mo Dao Zu Shi; Chen Qing Ling: Comfort Food / 有可能的夜晚, by Irrelevancy

Fandom: Mo Dao Zu Shi; Chen Qing Ling
Pairings/Characters: M/M; Song Lan | Song Zichen/Xiao Zingchen; Song Lan | Song Zichen, Xiao Xingchen
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 3,632 words
Content Notes: No Archive Warnings Apply, determinedly Taiwanese cuisine, Food Porn because the author inexplicably omitted that tag, racist microaggression (a character recounts getting renamed by his exchange host family.)
Creator Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, First Meetings, Taiwan, Street food, chinese diaspora feelings and food as love language, SongXiao Feast
Creator Links: (AO3) [archiveofourown.org profile] Irrelevancy; (Tumblr) [tumblr.com profile] touchmycoat
Theme: Food & Cooking, Cultural Differences, Fluff, Identity, Modern AU, Slice of Life

Summary: Flirting and cultural reclamation via Taiwanese street food. Songxiao modern meet-cute.

Author’s Notes:
For the #songxiaofeast on twitter, thanks for organizing the event~!!!! There's so much great art in the hashtag *~* love me some food love....

Chinese glossary at end lolol, and is this all a shameless marketing ploy for Taiwan night markets? yes.

…The menu (a twitter thread w pictures)
(Unfortunately no longer accessible—FMO.)

大腸包小腸 (dà cháng bāo xiǎo cháng): "little sausage wrapped around a big sausage" lol
蚵仔煎 (ó-à-tsiān): oyster pancake. I'm using the Taiwanese romanization here because it better captures that Hokkien pronunciation. Ningxia Night Market seriously has the best ones.
臭豆腐 (chò dò fǔ): stinky tofu!! I think it smells delicious; don't be like SL eat it normally without that crazy amount of sauce nkfsjdfds
肉圓麵線 (bà wán miàn xiàn): meatball & rice noodles. Two separate things but they're typically sold together. Meatball is always pronounced in Hokkien and sometimes rice noodle is too (mǐ suǎ)
豆花 (dòu huā): tofu pudding. It's not too sweet and it's sooooo refreshing to have on a hot taiwan evening with ice!
雞蛋糕 (jī dàn gāo): egg cake! They're seriously very good but a hit-or-miss from street vendors lmfao.

Drop a comment~! Happy feastings!!!!!!!


Reccer’s Notes: Taiwanese bartender Song Zichen, taking both pity on and a fancy to diasporic American tourist Xiao Xingchen, proceeds to initiate him into the ways of local street food (as both a welcome into his heritage and a courtship overture.) This fic, stuffed with delicious Unresolved Sexual Tension, serves as a reminder that the Sinosphere is a very big and diverse place, and brought an outpouring of nostalgic yearning for the Taste Of Home from diasporic commenters.

(And Ningxia Night Market needs to hire Irrelevancy as a publicist, dammit; I was fervently wishing my neighborhood had something like that up the alley!)

Fanwork links: Comfort Food / 有可能的夜晚 (AO3-locked.)
settiai: (Critical Role -- settiai)
Lynn | Settiai ([personal profile] settiai) wrote2025-09-20 02:35 pm

Critical Role: Campaign 4



The more they release about the upcoming fourth campaign of Critical Role, the more excited I am for it to start. CR3 was very much dragging for me by the end, mainly because it felt almost as if it was more a sequel to CR1 and CR2 with the CR3 characters taking the back burner at times. There's a reason that I don't, for example, like the big crossover events that Marvel and DC like to do, and that's what it reminded me of for the last six months or so of the campaign.

Everything I'm seeing about CR4, though, has me optimistic that the fresh start in a brand new world it's promising will be a good thing. I can't wait to actually meet the characters and see how many of them I properly mesh well with.
paranoidangel: Sarah Jane Smith, Sarah Walker, Sarah Jackson (Sarahs)
paranoidangel ([personal profile] paranoidangel) wrote in [community profile] tardis_library2025-09-20 01:05 pm

Rec [fic]: Bridesmaid with Benefits by natequarter

Title: Bridesmaid with Benefits
Creator: [archiveofourown.org profile] natequarter
Rating: Teen
Word Count/Length/Size: 22,614 words
Creator's Summary: Harry Sullivan’s one rule is: not to sleep with Sarah Jane Smith. Yes, she’s hot, but falling into bed with her after every wedding must stop! But when Harry sees a new side to her, he decides that some rules are made to be broken.
Characters/Pairings: Sarah Jane Smith/Harry Sullivan, Jamie McCrimmon
Warnings/Notes: None

Reasons for reccing: This is a setting-change AU. One of the fun things about those is how the characters are integrated into it - there are a lot of Doctors and companions in this, all with reasonable reasons to be there. And Sarah and Harry are fun, meeting in a different way, but still arguing the same way.


Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/66527113
selenak: (Max by Misbegotten)
selenak ([personal profile] selenak) wrote2025-09-20 02:21 pm
Entry tags:

Miss Austen (Miniseries)

Miss Austen: is a delightful four part miniseries. Now with the exception of the excellent Miss Austen Regrets, featuring Olivia Williams as an older Jane A., biographical media on Jane Austen has suffered from the usual flaw of biopics or bio series focusing on female authors, i.e. insisting on inflicting plots of their most popular work on their life. Miss Austen also avoids this, not least by the fact the titular Miss isn’t Jane, it’s her older sister Cassandra, played in middle age by a superb as usual Keeley Hawes and in flashbacks when young by SinnØve Karlsen, who is so versatile that despite having seen her being very good as Clarice Orsini, Lorenzo de’ Medici’s wife in Medici and superb most recently as Bayta in Foundation’s third season, I didn’t recognise her until googling her. (In addition to great acting, I blame the regency outfit and hairstyle in the flashbcks. *g*) Jane Austen is played by Patsy Ferran who is also great, both when being mischievous and witty, passionate about writing and her sister, and depressed (for various reasons, not least the early lack of success). In fact, this miniseries has led me to the conclusion that Jane Austen is like Benjamin Franklin in that the best way to treat her is as a supporting character where she can shine and leave the audience asking for more, whereas when Ben or Jane get the main character treatment, the increased focus reduces their charisma and attraction.

(This is also why back in my Highlander days, I never wanted a Methos spin-off, despite being as fond of the character as any other fan. He is perhaps THE example of a character who needs to remain a recurring guest star in order to maintain what makes their charm and mystery.)

Attend the saga of sisters and a sister-in-law… ) The script manages to avoid the obvious quotes while coming up for Austenish sounding things the characters to say, and does great both with the social comedy of manners and the emotional drama. All in all really superb. Anyone either German like me or French: I watched it on ARTE, which also offers the undubbed, original version. Enjoy!
feurioo: (Default)
sad voice freaky clown ([personal profile] feurioo) wrote in [community profile] tv_talk2025-09-20 01:08 pm

Speak Up Saturday

Assortment of black and white speech bubbles

Welcome to the weekly roundup post! What are you watching this week? What are you excited about?
settiai: (Kes -- settiai (TriaElf9))
Lynn | Settiai ([personal profile] settiai) wrote2025-09-19 11:38 pm
Entry tags:
double_dutchess: (Sunnydale Herald)
double_dutchess ([personal profile] double_dutchess) wrote in [community profile] su_herald2025-09-20 01:07 am

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Friday, September 19th

Giles: I cannot believe that you are fool enough to do something like this!
Xander: Oh, no, I'm twice the fool it takes to do something like this.

~~Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered~~


The Sunnydale Herald is looking for at least one new editor. Contributing to the Herald is a great way to get your Buffy on! Find out more here.


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[Chaptered Fiction]
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[Recs]
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sabotabby: (doom doom doom)
sabotabby ([personal profile] sabotabby) wrote2025-09-19 07:09 am
Entry tags:

podcast friday

 You should stop whatever you're doing and listen to Wizards & Spaceships' latest, "The Science Bros Answer Your Science Questions Part 2." There's a lot of explaining physics (and the problems with time travel, but also how mutable the immutable laws of the universe might be), and more slagging off the idea of Mars colonization. But most importantly there's a bit about dragon evolution that is rad as hell. It will make your day.
settiai: (Road Not Taken -- settiai)
Lynn | Settiai ([personal profile] settiai) wrote2025-09-19 12:30 am

Weekend Plans

I wanted to take a minute to type up my plans for the weekend while I'm thinking about it. I'll probably type up a proper to-do list sometime tomorrow (well, I suppose it's technically today at this point) so that I can mark things off as I do them, but I thought it would help to at least come up with a summary of sorts.

More under the cut. )

In general? I'm really hoping that Monday will mark a new beginning of sorts. That's the plan, as long as the universe cooperates. 🤞🏻

Life has been exhausting even without all of the stuff going on in the US in general, and I'm just so fucking tired. I need a new beginning, even if "autumn is finally here" is a relatively arbitrary one.
fatalfae: Sunnydale Herald use ONLY. (Default)
Fae ([personal profile] fatalfae) wrote in [community profile] su_herald2025-09-18 04:32 pm

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Thursday, September 18th

Lorne: Well, I figured since you all managed to destroy my club - twice - that I wouldn't be imposing if I hit you up for a place to stay. (Sees the mess in the lobby) On second thought, maybe I should reconsider that standing offer I have from a marginally attractive Mulix demon.

~~Dad~~

The Sunnydale Herald is looking for a new editor. Contributing to the Herald is a great way to get your Buffy on! Find out more.



[Drabbles & Short Fiction]


[Chaptered Fiction]


[Images, Audio & Video]


[Reviews & Recaps]


[Recs & In Search Of]


[Fandom Discussions]



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Join the editor team :)

sinesofinsanity: For use in leading quests and destorying balrongs (Default)
sinesofinsanity ([personal profile] sinesofinsanity) wrote in [community profile] fancake2025-09-18 11:22 am

ATLA: Heat, Wait, Steep, Repeat by Haicrescendo

Fandom: Avatar the Last Airbender
Pairings/Characters: Zuko, Iroh, the GAang in the background
Rating: G
Length: 2,889 words, 19min 30s
Creator Links: Haicrescendo
Theme: Food & Cooking, character development, family, families of choice, going home, missing scenes,

Summary:

[Zuko’s greatest failing, not his only but just one that stands out the most in a very long list, is that he’s never known quite what he had until it’s gone. Or, on the opposite hand, he covets the things that don’t matter, that seem to matter so much at the time and turn out, in the end, to be something that Zuko’s made up in his head.

And then Zuko finds, of all things after it all, that he misses Uncle Iroh’s tea.]

Or,

Zuko screws up his life and in the process of fixing it, figures out some tea wisdom along the way.


Reccer's Notes: This story is so beautiful and gentle. I absolutely love seeing how Zuko's growth and character development is mirrored with his finally learning to make a decent cup of tea. Plus the neat detail of how he despite learning from and trying to emulate his uncle, he makes it his own way. Zuko and Iroh's relationship is lovely in this too. Just an all around lovely story. klainelynch does a beautiful job with the podfic as well

Fanwork Links:
Heat, Wait, Steep, Repeat
and the Podfic both on AO3
jo: (Default)
jo ([personal profile] jo) wrote in [community profile] tv_talk2025-09-18 12:05 pm
Entry tags:

The beauty (?) of pre-streaming TV

Apologies for the post title -- I am very bad at coming up with titles for entries.

This topic arose out of a discussion on Bluesky and I thought it would be interesting to post it here. The premise is that before streaming, scripted television had to react to its own reality. What I mean is, shows that had to pump out 20+ episode seasons *every year* had to deal with actual real life things and work them into the script. For example, a character becomes pregnant because the actor gets pregnant, or a lead role had to "go missing" for part of a season because the actor was off doing a movie or dealing with a real life issue, or a character had to end up in a cast or otherwise accommodated because the actor injured themselves in real life, or the "filler episodes" that exist because of budget concerns, or the finales that were written because they didn't know if they'd be renewed for another season, etc.

With streaming, because the wait between seasons is so long, we no longer get these (admittedly sometimes rather demented) workarounds anymore. Or as one person on Bluesky put it: "If you can just tell the story you want to tell with the actors you have with whatever running time you want, it's not TV, it's a movie."

Thoughts? Do you miss the imposed responsiveness of pre-streaming TV? Do you have any favourite (or not so favourite) examples of plot lines that came about because of real life events involving the actors or other aspects of the show (e.g. budget issues)? 
selenak: (Agent Brand by Likeadeuce)
selenak ([personal profile] selenak) wrote2025-09-18 04:28 pm
Entry tags:

Alien: Earth 1.07

In which it's very useful to know the numbers of pi by heart. Or eye.

What have you done? )
settiai: (D&D -- settiai)
Lynn | Settiai ([personal profile] settiai) wrote2025-09-18 09:55 am
Entry tags:

On the D&D front...

So, yes, I posted my usual summary last night, but the events of the game itself deserve their own post.

More about the utter chaos of extremely lucky wild magic rolls under the cut. )
elisi: (Women's March)
elisi ([personal profile] elisi) wrote2025-09-18 06:49 am

Well said

Protestors Disrupt Dinner Celebrating Trump's State Visit

Activists from Fossil Free London disrupted a Republican Overseas UK dinner in Windsor celebrating Donald Trump’s state visit. The event took place at the Guildhall, just minutes from Windsor Castle where Trump is being hosted by King Charles.
full_metal_ox: A Chinese gold Metal Ox charm, with a textured teal frame. (framed)
full_metal_ox ([personal profile] full_metal_ox) wrote in [community profile] fancake2025-09-18 02:35 am

Mo Dao Zu Shi; Chen Qing Ling: Tea Preferences by CQL Sects - a Headcanon, by watch-grok-brainrot

Fandom: Mo Dao Zu Shi; Chen Qing Ling
Pairings/Characters: Gen; M/M; Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian; Jin Zixuan, Wen Qing, Wen Ning, Nie Mingjue, Nie Huaisang, Jiang Fengmian, Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng, Jiang Yanli, Lan Xichen, Lan An, Lan Wangji
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 1,209 words
Content Notes: No Archive Warnings Apply, arrant pedantry, Author Showed Her Work, Food Porn, gastrotravelogue, tea nerdery, Tumblr work
Creator Tags:
headcanon, the untamed 陈情令, cql, mo dao zu shi, mdzs, wei wuxian, lan wangji, nie huaisang, jin zixuan, wen qing, nie mingjue, wangxian headcanon at the very end because that's what i'm here for, tea, i really like tea, heicha, oolong, white tea, green tea, dragonwell, my ramblings, qi is a thing for some tea drinkers

Creator Links: (AO3) [archiveofourown.org profile] Haoppopotamus; (Instagram) [instagram.com profile] haoppopotamus; (Tumblr) [tumblr.com profile] watch-grok-brainrot (formerly [tumblr.com profile] wangxianbunnydoodles)
Theme: Food & Cooking, Cultural Differences, Meta, Research, Worldbuilding

Summary: Since watching ep 3 for the first time (i.e. january), this has been knocking around in my brain. In ep 3, we see JZXuan waltzing into the same inn as the Yunmeng Trio, booting them, and then rejecting “bad tea”. Ever since, I’ve watched a lot of tea being poured in CQL. It got me thinking, what kind of tea would different sects prefer and what would different characters drink?

Reccer’s Notes: In which Haoppo uses her tea connoisseurship as a vehicle for characterization and worldbuilding (and invites her imaginary friends to illustrate and share her interest.) For the likes of me (with no claim to Asian cred by birth or upbringing, and whose blunted sensory range reduces almost all tea to hot leaf juice), this serves as a window into an unfamiliar area of interest and body of cultural reference frames (the idea that tea might possess qi, not necessarily related to its flavor, was a new one on me—but of obvious importance to cultivators.)

Fanwork Links: Tea Preferences by CQL Sects - a Headcanon

(The original post, preserved on the Wayback Machine, includes a beautiful and apropos GIF header: Tea Preferences by CQL Sects - a Headcanon ([tumblr.com profile] wangxianbunnydoodles)