#modern AU with a splash of SU

[uovoc]

2023 Media consumption

God tier: media that invoked blorbo-induced euphoria, mini-obsession, or just haunt me

White Cat Legend (大理寺日志, Dali Court Journal) - donghua, seasons 1 and 2. The new vice minister of the imperial court of criminal justice is, unfortunately, a cat demon. Tang Dynasty workplace comedy/political intrigue. Lovely animation, sick fight scenes, and catboys.

Scissor Seven (刺客伍六七) - donghua, seasons 2-3. Netflix summary: "Seeking to recover his memory, a scissor-wielding, hairdressing, bungling quasi-assassin stumbles into a struggle for power among feuding factions." Season 1 was just ok at best, season 2 was great, season 3 was phenomenal, season 4 was meh.

Derkholm duology by Diana Wynne Jones (reread)

God Troubles Me / Hanhua Riji (汉化日记) - donghua. Cringefail loser girl Su Moting, her cringefail smartphone god, and her cringefail cat (demon) have to save the world. But first she has to go to work. And get takeout. And watch dramas. The premise sounds SO cringe but it's well-executed and hilarious. And actually a pretty sharp but good-humored window into the delights and horrors of modern everyday life in china.

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt (reread). At the peak of the California gold rush, hitmen Charlie and Eli Sisters are hired for a job that Eli is liking less and less. 1st-person perspective of a stone-cold killer, where it turns out the killer is just Some Guy. Who is kind of awkward. And pathetic. And maybe not very bright.

Gobelins graduation animated shorts: "Chroniques de l'Eau Salée" (2021), "Last Summer" (2022), and "Go Fishboy" (2022). Available to watch on YouTube. Got caught up on 2021 and 2022 and these are the ones that will haunt me.

Ranma 1/2 by Rumiko Takahashi - manga (reread). Teenage martial artist is cursed to transform into a hot girl whenever he's splashed with cold water. Still some of the funniest and most deranged comedy I've ever read.

"Golden Age" - short story by Naomi Novik set in the Temeraire universe. Hilarious and delightful Feral Temeraire AU.

Just ok: media that I didn't hate, and maybe even enjoyed

A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore

Coyote Blue by Christopher Moore

Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings by Christopher Moore

Glass Onion (2022) dir. Rian Johnson

Puss in Boots: the Last Wish (2022) dir. Joel Crawford

Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead

Witch's Business by Diana Wynne Jones (reread)

Chrestomanci series by Diana Wynne Jones (reread) - Charmed Life, The Lives of Christopher Chant, Mixed Magics, The Pinhoe Egg

Firebirds: An Anthology of Original Fantasy and Science Fiction, ed. Sharyn November. Faves: "Beauty" by Sherwood Smith, "Little Dot" by Diana Wynne Jones, and "Remember Me" by Nancy Farmer.

All Systems Red (异星危机) by Martha Wells, Simplified tr. by 黎思敏

All Saints Street (万圣街) - donghua, seasons 1-3

Moira's Pen by Megan Whalen Turner

Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones (reread)

The Game by Diana Wynne Jones (reread)

Deep Secret by Diana Wynne Jones (reread)

Selected Discworlds: Thief of Time, Unseen Academicals (reread)

The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer (reread)

The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells by Andrew Sean Greer

"Louise", Gobelins 2021 graduation animated short. Pretty good, but not god tier.

The Time of the Ghost by Diana Wynne Jones (reread)

Less by Andrew Sean Greer. Most of it was a slog, but the ending was wonderfully tender.

The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones (reread)

Secondhand Souls by Christopher Moore

The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke

Are You Listening? by Tillie Walden

Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan

Spinning by Tillie Walden

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (reread)

The Mermaid (美人鱼) - movie (2016)

Exhalation by Ted Chiang. Fave: Exhalation

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

Motorcity - cartoon (rewatch)

Sing 2 - movie

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves - movie

White Cat Legend (大理寺日志) manhua through chapter 186

A Monster in Paris - movie (rewatch)

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - movie

Lionboy trilogy by Zizou Corder: Lionboy, The Chase, and The Truth (reread)

The Moorchild by Eloise McGraw

Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms (封神第一部：朝歌风云) - movie

Our Flag Means Death - season 2

Skellig by David Almond (reread). Even more unsettling and magical than I remembered.

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (人��反派自救系统) by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Savvy by Ingrid Law (reread)

The Silent Boy by Lois Lowry

Golden Age and Other Stories by Naomi Novik. "Golden Age" alone was amazing. Every thing else: meh.

Wonder by RJ Palacio except that the ending sucked

蓝溪镇 (Lanxi Zhen/Blue Creek Town) - manhua (reread), through chapter 112

Translation State by Ann Leckie

Disliked and often DNF'd

House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds

A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro

Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn

The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley

Phoenix Rising by Karen Hesse

Palimpsest by Catherine Valente

Knives Out (2019) dir. Rian Johnson

The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nhi Vgo

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots. Genuinely creative concept, enjoyable characters, and horrifying (affectionate) ending! Writing was just very, very bad.

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove by Christopher Moore

Stowaway by Karen Hesse

Nirvana in Fire (狼牙榜) - ok objectively it was fine. It was just SO long that I started losing patience at multiple points.

Marcel the Shell with Shoes on (2021) dir. Dean Fleischer Camp

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor

Suzume - anime movie

Fairies Albums (百妖谱) - donghua

Link Click （时光代理人）- donghua

The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn by Tri Vuong - webcomic

Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo

Journey to the West: Demons Strike Back (西游伏妖篇) - movie

Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Others Writings by Jorge Luis Borges

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

Frozen 2 - movie

Logan - movie

The Three Sisters of Tenmasou - movie

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Nothing new.

Bewilderment by Richard Powers

Nimona (2023) - movie

Prophet by Helen MacDonald and Sin Blache

One Piece - the live action Netflix series

Good Omens season 2

Birdwing by Rafe Martin

Blue Eye Samurai - netflix cartoon

Haven't You Heard I'm Sakamoto - anime

System Collapse by Martha Wells

The Cay by Theodore Taylor (reread)

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

Bottoms (2023) - movie

Daily Life of the Immortal King (仙王的日常生活) - donghua

Witch King by Martha Wells. Actually I enjoyed the Kai/Bashasa storyline a lot. The present-day storyline I found extremely boring. Which was unfortunate because it was more than half the book.

The King's Avatar (全职高手) - donghua

The Apothecary Diaries - anime

Assorted nonfiction

The Electricity of Every Living Thing by Katherine May. Bored. DNF

Alone in the Wilderness (2004) - dir. Dick Proenneke. Documentary of Proenneke's year spent living alone in the Alaskan wilderness. Neat look at one dude building a cabin, furniture, and all his accompanying household implements by hand.

A River Lost: The Life and Death of the Columbia by Blaine Harden. The human and environmental significance of the Columbia dam system.

Gifted Earth: The Ethnobotany of the Quinault and Neighboring Tribes by Douglas Deur. Guide to key native species and their traditional uses.

A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life by George Saunders. Four classic Russian short stories with accompanying technical analysis of their narrative construction. Great look at the process of writing and analyzing stories.

Animals Make Us Human by Temple Grandin - animal behavioral psychology

Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin - more animal behavioral psychology

Crying in HMart by Michelle Zauner. DNF. Felt like the book could have been 1/4 of its length. Mostly nothing new.

Wood in American Life: 1776-2076 by WG Youngquist and HO Fleischer. Wood use in America. Really makes you realize just how many things are now made out of plastic but used to be wood. And how much more difficult and expensive it was to make and replace objects.

Authentic Diversity: How to change the workplace for good by Michelle Silverthorn. Concise and nicely concrete. Would be a good starting place for an executive.

Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neil - how some big data algorithms reinforce preexisting inequality, and how to improve them.

The Relationship Cure by Joan Declaire and John M. Gottman. The classic originator of the "bids for attention" approach. Pretty good, most helpful was the part where it identifies the styles of responses.

Essential Retirement Planning for Solo Agers: A Retirement and Aging Roadmap for Single and Childless Adults by Sara Zeff Geber

A Wolf at the Table by Augusten Burroughs

the excellent hyperlocal nature guidebook I bought after encountering the author at the mall

Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence, by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez. 2018 ed.

[justm3h]

@onepiecesecretsanta2018 for @wofwalker

Tah Dah~ I was your secret santa!~ Seeing you wanted some SU fusion art, I rubbed my hands together like a mad woman and had some fun with it, placing in a modern Au too. Then I liked the idea so if you keep an eye out, you'll see more about it after the holidays~

There are people with strange powers that legends say come from the stars called Gems. Gems have all sorts of abilities but the strongest and strangest power is the ability to fuse, held only by Diamonds.

Law is the last of the Yellow Diamonds, a legacy he has no memory of after the murder of his family. Raise and protected by the Donquixote family, he lives a normal peaceful life.

Til he runs into a stranger, tumbles and twirls, and Lawlu is sitting on the ground very very confused.

[explicitred]

Pantalone's wallet is MY wallet

June 18, Post 14 of the "30 Days Fanfic Event"

Pantalone x Male Reader

Modern au?? I need more primos :c (even though i have 7k+ primos saved up, YOU CAN NEVER HAVE ENOUGH) second highest voted in Dottore's Headcanons poll

Pantalone and Baizhu though, sus 🤔

What?? ahahahah. YOU’RE POOR IN GENSHIN??

Worry not, this smiling banker man will pay :D

Sit back, relax, and enjoy the massive amount of primogems coming your way to gamble more on genshin impact 😎

Sighing in frustration, you looked at your C20 Keqing. 

“I swear this cat lady has a crush on me, she’s been coming to me for 20 times in a row.”

Boredly looking at her splash art, you clicked on the screen, the next thing being The Bell.

(mm, yes. my favorite.)

After clicking again, the screen returned back to the summoning page. 159 Primogems left?! The pain. 

Suddenly, Pantalone’s head peeks out above your chair, cutely curious about what you were doing and playing.

“Oh? You have… 159 of this star currency?” He spoke in a hushed tone, “Do you possibly think that’s enough for the beloved of Regrator, dearest?”

Cue the spending and drowning in 1m+ primogems

We eat, shower, and shi primogems. it's a good time.

[manonguichard]

Wallpaper creation workshop with Julie Héneault and Émilie Ferrat. Based on the writings « la vie mode d’emploi » ("How-to-use life") and « les choses » ("things") by Georges Pérec. ABBA is a pattern creation project for wallpapers. Why "ABBA"? We picked an image of a interior decorated in the fashion of the sixties. This first step was named "A". Then, from this simple image, we had to imagine and develop the story of people who lived in this setting. Who were they? Their jobs ? Their age ? Their past? Their hobbies? "B". And from this story "B", we had to recreate an image "A", which happened to be a wallpaper pattern. A pattern that tells the story of life inhabitants. Wallpaper printed in risography by Ravisius Textor. Here is the translation of the story I wrote :  "During the night, this hotel room is taken over by a man and a woman. The curtains are closed, and under the artificial lights the woman takes care of her. They are in their thirties and travel regularly. While Madame is using the many products scattered around the sink, Monsieur is looking at her from the wicker chair that he has placed at the corner of the bedroom to admire her. They have no children and prefer to live an adventure for two than to lock themselves in a restrictive daily life. Just like this room, which never sees the same sleepers, the couple never sleeps two consecutive nights under the same roof. The owners of this discreet downtown hotel have decorated their rooms according to trends, wanting modern and relaxing interiors. Th lodgers for one evening like to bury their bare feet in the beige carpet on the floor. As employees come and go during the morning, cleaning the dusty floor, the mirror splashed with water and the crumpled sheets, customers satisfy their desires during the evening and sleep hand in hand. The traveling couple is  always busy with their occupations: coquetry for the woman, contemplation for the man. The scents of feminine perfume, clean linen, wood and tobacco mingle. The smoke of the cigarette veils the dimmed yellow beams of the lamp above the bed. Before leaving the premises, the man will warn the owner that it will have to be changed. His eyes migrate to the frame above the wall. A floral landscape. The man finds it soothing. He reminds him of the dress his wife wore when they met in a Prague bar.  Suddenly, alerted by a noise, the man leaves his contemplation to take a look under the bed and discovers a female employee of the hotel. Hidden for several hours, the voyeur had been discreet until her sneezes betrayed her ... ".

Workshop de création de papiers peints en compagnie de Julie Héneault et Émilie Ferrat. Basé sur les écrits « la vie mode d’emploi » et « les choses » de Georges Pérec. ABBA est un projet de création de motifs pour papiers peints. Pourquoi « ABBA » ? Nous avions tiré une image d’intérieur décoré selon la mode des années soixante. Cette première étape constituait « A ». Ensuite, de cette simple image, il nous fallait imaginer et développer l’histoire des individus qui vivaient dans ce décor. Qui étaient-ils ? Leur métier ? Leur âge ? Leur passé ? Leurs loisirs ? « B ».  Et de cette histoire « B », nous devions recréer une image « A », qui se trouvait être un motif de papier peint. Un motif qui raconte donc la vie des habitants. Papier peint imprimé en risographie à Ravisius Textor. Voici le récit que j’ai écrit : « Durant la nuit, cette chambre d’hôtel est investie par un homme et une femme. Les rideaux sont fermés, et sous les lumières artificielles la femme prend soin d’elle. Ils sont trentenaires et voyagent régulièrement. Alors que madame utilise les nombreux produits éparpillés autour de l’évier, monsieur la regarde depuis la chaise en osier qu’il a placé au coin de la chambre pour l’admirer. Ils n’ont pas d’enfants, sont sans attaches, et préfèrent vivre une aventure à deux que de s’enfermer dans un quotidien contraignant. Tout comme cette chambre qui ne voit jamais les mêmes dormeurs profiter de son confort nocturne, le couple ne dort jamais deux nuits consécutives sous le même toit. Les propriétaires de cet hôtel discret du centre-ville ont décoré leurs chambres en suivant les tendances, souhaitant des intérieurs modernes et reposants. Les locataires d’un soir aiment enfouir leurs pieds nus dans la moquette beige que revêt le sol. Alors que les employés vont et viennent durant la matinée en s’affairant à nettoyer ce revêtement de sol poussiéreux, le miroir éclaboussé d’eau ainsi que les draps froissés, les clients assouvissent leurs désirs durant la soirée et dorment main dans la main. Le couple de voyageur, lui, est toujours affairé à leurs occupations : des coquetteries pour la femme, des contemplations pour l’homme. Les odeurs de parfum féminin, de linges propres, de bois et de tabac se mêlent. La fumé de la cigarette voile les faisceaux jaunes tamisés de la lampe au-dessus du lit. Avant de partir définitivement des lieux, l’homme préviendra la propriétaire qu’il faudra la changer. Ses yeux migrent vers le cadre au-dessus du mur. C’est un paysage floral. L’homme le trouve apaisant. Il lui rappelle la robe que portait sa femme lors de leur rencontre, dans un bar de Prague.  Soudain, alerté par un bruit, l’homme sort de sa contemplation pour jeter un coup d’œil sous le lit et découvre une employée de l’hôtel. Cachée depuis plusieurs heures, la voyeuse avait su se faire discrète jusqu’à ce que ses éternuements la trahissent... ».