ealgylden | Reading

Title: Tell Me It Gets Easier
Artist: Oluka
Writer: Naivelittleprincess
Universe: MCU
Rating: Gen for art, T for fic
Work Warnings: suicidal thoughts
Fic Wordcount: 5180
Summary:

They can't hear him.

They can't hear his teeth chatter. Or the raspy scratch of his breath. They can't hear his pained whispers.

But he can hear them. He can hear the voices at the other end. The telltale signs of bickering and panic.

He can't decide whether that's a good thing or not.

Or Steve Rogers and his terrible, no good diary of woes. Starting with the cold, ending with Tony Stark.

Link to Oluka's art on Tumblr
Link to Naivelittleprincess' fic on AO3

cimorene

1. I used to spend maybe 8-12 hours per week on a sideblog on Tumblr for images from the history of the decorative arts. Then I succumbed to the idea of talking to the followers directly (it has around 8000 which is waaaaaay more than my normal Tumblr or my pet photo blog) and got some asks that threw me into social confusion and then shame and avoidance and I just didn't update it for like three years. In retrospect, also, the amount of time I was spending on it shortly before I stopped was not practical and sustainable. But I got into a discussion about rococo, and started looking some things up in curiosity, and I had never posted very much about rococo before. And now I started posting there again a bit! (It's called

designobjectory.) It started a week ago with curiosity about the early output of KPM porcelain (the royal porcelain manufactory of Prussia originally, iconic) and has led to the discovery of Weimar classicism in the form of Goethe's house.

2. I inked my two 1.1-mm stub nib fountain pens — well, actually, a Lamy Safari 1.1-mm stub and a vintage Pelikan 400 (mine is brown tortoiseshell, a holiday present a few years ago) with a (pre-existing) custom oblique stub that is about 1.1. — and have been practicing calligraphy a bit, which I haven't done in a while because I haven't had any of my italic pens inked. I spent some time on Gothic capitals, because I want to do more Rotunda, and then Carolingian, which I haven't bothered practicing in the longest time.

mrkinch

In Chris's absence, U and I walked the boardwalk up to the Lake and back, sitting for a long time at the Lake watching the Anna's Hummingbird on her nest and a Brown Creeper disappearing into a hole in the loose bark of a snag with beakful after beakful of nest material. That was great fun. And although the Nuttall's Woodpecker nest we found last week appeared to have been vacated, there was what seemed to be a family of recently fledged Downy Woodpeckers near the Lake. I don't think I've seen/heard as many Downys in one day as today. THe Chestnut-backed Chickadees were fledging, as well, and we watched on chasing their parent and begging thile beginning to find food for themselves, and right beside my head! They were too intent to bother about us. ( The list: )

cimorene

“Have you read anything interesting lately, Gregory?” said Geraldine.

“No. No improper books have come my way. And I am too young to read anything suitable for me. If I don’t have to hide my books from my mother, I can’t take any interest in them.”

—Ivy Compton-Burnett, Men and Wives

mrkinch

I walked Lower Packrat not terribly early because although it's Sunday it's overcast, windy and cold so there weren't many people. There were no specially interesting birds although the list is reasonably long. The Anna's Hummingbird is still on her nest at Jewel Lake, and I heard an Olive-sided Flycatcher, which I don't always down there. The Swainson's Thrushes and Black-headed Grosbeaks were singing but not so much the Warbling Vireos, though I heard one scolding, possibly because there was a Cooper's Hawk around. ( The list: )

I had decided I should try Lower Packrat Trail to see whether perhaps I could do it with U tomorrow since Chris is away. And I can do it, but not sure about two days in a row right now.:(

alethia

Go By Feel (10623 words) by Alethia
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Pitt (TV)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jack Abbot/Michael "Robby" Robinavitch
Characters: Jack Abbot (The Pitt), Michael "Robby" Robinavitch, Dana Evans, Parker Ellis
Additional Tags: Post-Season/Series 01, Secret Crush, Pining, Touching, First Kiss, First Time, Porn, robby's gay awakening, abbot has the best ideas, dana knows everything
Summary:

Robby sagged a little, another tiny rush of air out. Jack pretended not to notice any of it even as it slid through him, his hypothesis gaining evidence, firming in his mind.

No, Jack didn't think anyone ever touched Robby.

He was going to change that.

Current Mood: busy

cap_ironman_fe posting in

cap_ironman

Title: now showing
Artist: jetblackfeeling
Writer: alexcat
Universe: MCU
Rating: Explicit for art and fic
Fic Wordcount: 5571
Summary:

How can a simple malfunction in a building's computer keep two people apart? It can when they're both too stubborn to talk to one another and too embarrassed to take anyone's advice. OR - this is what happens when you accidentally become a porn star to your own friends.

Link to jetblackfeeling's art on AO3
Link to alexcat's fic on AO3

copracat

So, the Doctor ( spoilers )

musesfool

Recs update!

unfitforsociety has been updated for May 2025 with 13 story recs and 2 vid recs in 3 fandoms:

✭ 12 Batfamily
✭ 1 Star Wars
✭ 1 Avengers vid and 1 Star Wars vid

***

I bought some string cheese a couple weeks ago on sale and today I breaded and fried it into mozzarella sticks. So good to eat! So messy to clean up after!

I slept poorly again last night - I had to shut the window while it was raining, and I don't know if it's the barometric pressure that's been giving me these headaches, but I don't like it. At least this cool rainy weather meant I made it all the way through May without turning on the AC. It looks like I will probably start needed it next week though. Last year, I signed up for the thing where they charge you the same amount each month to smooth out the ups and downs, which I've grown to prefer to the $110 swings in my electric bill come summer.

In other news, I learned that there really is a cocoa shortage and I'm not imagining it. So I'm glad I stocked up from King Arthur. Unfortunately, the bag had a small tear in it, so everything in the box it shipped with was covered in a fine dusting of cocoa powder. 🤨 But I washed it all and transferred the cocoa into a ziplock so it's all nice and tidy now.

***

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Mets beating the Rox on tv

serrico

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: listless

cap_ironman_fe posting in

cap_ironman

Title: Homosexual Tendencies
Artist: ABrighterDarkness
Writer: kianisabitch
Universe: MCU
Rating: Explicit
Work Warnings: non descriptive self-harm
Fic Wordcount: 10221 words
Summary:

The very first time Steve Rogers saw two men kiss, two twenty somethings at a coffee shop he was frequenting for an Avenger's Community outreach appearance, he excused himself to the bathroom, got down on his knees right there on the cracked linoleum floor of the farthest stall to the left and vomited up his entire breakfast on the spot.

He gagged over the public toilet, vomiting until he was only able to bring up bile mixed with little specks of blood, as he tried desperately to screw his eyes shut tightly- refusing to let any tears fall.

OR

Tony thinks Steve is a homophobe, but it turns out he really just hates himself.

Link to ABrighterDarkness's art and kianisabitch's fic on AO3

mrkinch

An... interesting morning, possibly too soon (I got very tired, but there was enough birdsong to keep me going) and EBMUD has not mowed so it was tick city. I had put repellent on my legs but not on my clothing, so I had to watch for them and brush them off. The top of the first rise, where I like to be for sunrise, was more interesting than usual. There were both Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and at least one Laurence's Goldfinch in the tall weeds on the eastern side of the trail, though unsurprisingly I saw neither species. I head Olive-sided Flycatchers and saw a silent Western Wood-pewee. There were Bewick's wrens singing every where and the Great Horned Owl was hooting well into the morning. ( The list: )

In non-Inspiration Trail news, there was a striped skunk at Channing and Piedmont. I hope they found some good scraps around the frat houses. And a Warbling Vireo was singing just across the road from where I heard one for several summers, which made me happy.

musesfool

I slept very poorly last night and woke up with a blinding headache and some serious nausea, so I called out of work and went back to bed for a couple of hours.

I keep meaning to post then forgetting what I want to say, since it's mostly just about work. I did get several amazing photos of Baby Miss L in a Spider-Gwen outfit with a hood (with a glittery pink mask on it), a cute blue spider on the torso (when I first saw it, I admit my initial response was "Khaji Da?" so it's more scarab than spider but also she's 2 and a half, so) and a skirt decorated with webbing. It's so cute and she apparently approved of it by saying "Spider-Man! Spider-Man!" in her specific toddler lingo. And the Superman dress finally arrived so I hope to see pictures of that soon, too! Also, she has taken to carrying her Easter basket over her shoulder like a purse and calling it her bag, so she is definitely getting a headstart on her fashionista personality.

In other news, I was reading some fic I was otherwise enjoying but I will never ever ever understand why in EVERY SINGLE FANDOM I have ever read fic in, there are some gobsmackingly awful non-canon nicknames that proliferate. Sometimes for characters who already have a canonical nickname, so why? I mean, I get that the use of a nickname can be intimacy marker (much like the switch from last name to first name, or full first name to canon nickname), but the fact is, none of the characters this is applied to would ever allow themselves to be called these names by ANYONE, not even an intimate partner. The worst is when Jason calls Talia "Tals." NO. WHO thinks TALIA AL GHUL, DAUGHTER OF THE DEMON, is going to let ANYONE call her "Tals." No, really, meet me in the parking lot, I just have some questions.

I also don't understand when people apologize for...well, anything really, in their author's notes, but especially when they say shit like, "Sorry this chapter is mostly dialogue! We'll get back to the introspection soon!" I mean, I guess some people don't like dialogue??? Obviously mileage varies. But it is frequently the best part of a story for me. If your story holds off on dialogue for too long in favor of maundering introspection, I will likely wander away and never come back (like, obviously if it's a 900-word plotless character ramble that's fine, but then you are not posting it in chapters, at least I'd hope not).

I guess if you're not confident in your character voices, dialogue can be difficult, but you're still going to need to get the character voice right in the narration/introspection, and some characters are not really going to be doing a lot of introspection at all, even in their own heads, so it's even harder to get them right. Which is probably when it's time to revisit canon. But I admit, dialogue is pretty much the easiest thing I find to write, so possibly it's just me.

*

Current Mood: better
Current Music: Mets vs Rockies on tv

cimorene

“If not for Jerusalem, then,” said Richard, in the tone of one who would entreat a favour of an intimate friend, “yet, for the love of honour, let us run at least three courses with grinded lances?”

“Even this,” said Saladin, half smiling at Coeur de Lion's affectionate earnestness for the combat—“even this I may not lawfully do. The master places the shepherd over the flock not for the shepherd's own sake, but for the sake of the sheep. Had I a son to hold the sceptre when I fell, I might have had the liberty, as I have the will, to brave this bold encounter; but your own Scripture saith that when the herdsman is smitten, the sheep are scattered.”

“Thou hast had all the fortune,” said Richard, turning to the Earl of Huntingdon with a sigh. “I would have given the best year in my life for that one half hour beside the Diamond of the Desert!”

—Walter Scott, The Talisman

cap_ironman_fe posting in

cap_ironman

Title: Time Stood Still
Artist: Laidraws
Writer: ABrighterDarkness
Universe: MCU
Rating: T
Fic Wordcount: 13463
Summary:

“What would you do if you didn’t have to return?”

Tony’s eyes were closed against the late-Summer sun, far more relaxed than he could recall ever being as they laid in the deep grass beneath the trees. The easy contentment, the relaxation was a common thread running through his time in this strange place.

Even still, he had to smile.

That question, yet again.

Link to Laidraw's art on tumbr
Link to ABrighterDarkness' fic on AO3

mrkinch

I parked at 6:44 and spent a almost entirely enjoyable two hours walking to the bench, hanging there for a while, and walking back. Everyone was singing! There appeared to be a family of Western Wood-pewees in the usual area north of the bench, and to my surprise, because it's more than a month since I saw it being excavated and I expected the babies to have fledged, there was loud Red-breasted Nuthatch chatter coming from the nest hole in the big snag. ( The list: )

While I was sitting on the bench watching an adorable Bewick's wren, among other birds, I heard California Quail calling from down along the road through the Nature Area, almost certainly that quail pair we've seen several times now. So nice to have them there.

cimorene

The King of England [Richard the Lionheart], who, as it was emphatically said of his successor Henry the Eighth, loved to look upon A MAN, was well pleased with the thews, sinews, and symmetry of him whom he now surveyed...

— Walter Scott, The Talisman

forestofglory posting in

ladybusiness

Last year I wrote an essay about cozy SFF. I started out writing a passionate defense of cozy SFF, then I wasn't quite happy with it and put it on the shelf for a while. When I got back to it, I realized there were some things about the current moment of cozy SFF that I don't really like. So I had to edit my piece. But even then I felt the conversation was getting away from me.

I've only become more frustrated with what's being marketed as cozy SFF and the discourse around it. I find the stuff being published isn't digging into the themes that I want to see. Meanwhile the discourse is both dismissive and full of moral panic. I think both that domestic labor and community building are important and worth telling stories about and shouldn’t be dismissed, and that it's ok to read soft comforting stories. I wish people would calm down a bit.

( Read more... )

cimorene

As you all are potentially aware, I have an allergy to at least one (unknown id) perfume and am hyper sensitive to other (many, but not all) perfumes and some natural fragrances. Besides one lavender tea incident, the throat swelling has only ever been in response to perfumed products on the lower half of my face for longer than the time it takes to wash it back off (so it's not TOO scary, since I always have time to escape). Hypersensitivity isn't the same as allergy, but when you add the knowledge that some unknown perfume aggressors out there will make my airway swell mostly closed, the hypersensitivity becomes very alarming and hard to deal with. Am I sneezing and feeling like I'm gonna choke because Smell, or am I risking anaphylaxis?

So as you can imagine, I usually buy unscented cosmetics, hygiene products, etc. And that's not always enough! As I was saying to

twistedchick recently, sometimes I have to discard unscented products due to the smells of ingredients. Common offenders include burning (how?), ozone (this isn't unbearable but it's very annoying), a vaguely "gone off" smell in some moisturizers (rancid oils? Or some kind of fungal ingredient??), and urine (WHY! I know it's because they use urea in the manufacture but that's an issue I would think they would consider urgent to fix???)

But sometimes I feel compelled to try scented products because there doesn't seem to be a good unscented alternative. If you have any special requirements for shampoo and conditioner - in my case, I have low-porosity hair and lots of common ingredients don't work for me - there tend to be no unscented options, because unscented products are already considered a special requirement. I have decided that I need a new leave in conditioner that's more effective for holding curls and waves without frizz, and maybe a curl cream. (I don't like gel but it's always there if I can't find a good cream solution.)

Well, I tried a John Frieda Frizz Ease "curl revitalizing oil spray" today with great hopes.

My first impression was "this smells like my mother in law".

waxjism agrees. It's a perfume, and the product does contain a little patchouli but it's not exactly patchouli that smells like her (but it is musky). The ingredients include "perfume", as usual, which should be illegal anywhere btw, so that's not much help.

Anyway, it's strong enough that I don't like it and will have to give it away, but it's not strong enough that I need to wash it out a day early, as long as my hair is kept back out of my face.

I've been reading the occasional perfume review reblogged by

cleolinda and have got the idea it could be oud or some rose-related thing. Or maybe it's the combination of patchouli with one of these other things? I'm medium confident that it's not moringa...

( full ingredients list )

Current Mood: I don't have a hair tag
Current Music: or an allergy tag

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Joan's Journal

Woman with a Sword

Cap-IM Reverse Big Bang 2025: Team Heroic

what's up

6/2/2025 Tilden Nature Area

No improper books have come my way

6/2/2025 Tilden Nature Area

The Pitt Fic: Go By Feel (Abbot/Robby, NC-17)

Cap-IM Reverse Big Bang 2025: Team Oath

season finale

goes right back to that breaking ball

New Vid! Star Trek xBs: Violet Hill

Cap-IM Reverse Big Bang 2025: Team Breakout

5/30/2025 Inspiration Trail

went to the curveball, bounced it

He wants to joust against Saladin so bad it makes him look stupid

Cap-IM Reverse Big Bang 2025: Team Avenger

5/29/2025 Loop Road

Walter Scott: Fellas, is it gay if knights have elaborate rituals to touch each other's bodies

Domestic Labor and Community Building Rec List

hunting for leave in conditioners for curls (waves) that don't stank

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October 2005

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