#Overview of DNF

[wearethekat]

December Book Review Overview

Hold Fast (Sebastian Nothwell)

The Death of Jane Lawrence (Caitlin Starling)

The Wrong Lady Meets Lord Right (Suzanne Allain)

The Salvation Gambit (Emily Skrutskie)

Fire Spells Between Friends (Sarah Wallace)

This Cursed House (Del Sandeen)

Now Wait For Last Year (Phillip Dick)

Mazes of Power (Juliette Wade)

How To Steal A Galaxy (Beth Revis)

The Birdcage Library (Freya Berry)

Eleventh Hour (Elin Gregory)

Dark Woods, Deep Water (Jelena Dunato)

Under the Earth, Over the Sky (Emily McCosh)

The Uses of Illicit Art (Wendy Palmer)

The Siege of Burning Grass (Premee Mohamed)

Beguilement (Lois McMaster Bujold)

Dulhaniyaa (Talia Bhatt)

Legacy (Lois Mcmaster Bujold)

The Dragonfly Gambit (AD Sui)

A Dowry of Blood (ST Gibson)

The Tea Master and the Detective (Aliette de Bodard)

Dazzling (Chikodili Emelumadu)

Transgressions of Power (Juliet Wade)

Daughter of Tides (Kit Rocha)

The Orb of Cairado (Katherine Addison)

The Resurrectionist (A Rae Dunlap)

The Buttercross Dragon (Maria Grace)

Steal the Sky (Megan E O'Keefe)

DNF:

Black Leviathan (Bernd Perplies)

The Stones Stay Silent (Danny Ride)

Threadneedle (Cari Thomas)

Set in Stone (Stella Brinzeanu)

The Players (Minette Walters)

[shadmist]

The Summons

Author's note: This is purely made of my imagination. I have no solid reference for where I came up with these details. This is an x reader, and I am doing my best to keep the reader description open to design. Attitude of reader is curated to be more realistic, sassy, and capable. The damsel in distress attitude gets so old. What do you think? Comment a favorite part, a critique, or just something fun!

Warnings: Woman reader?, first written piece in a while?, some dark humor?, I am doing warnings for each chapter. This one is innocent.

Overview: Jason wanted to prove a point. He instead became a fan boy. Now, he gets to experience that world first hand and meet a book crush. Will it be everything he could hope for? Or will he DNF this book and look for a way home?

— Jason —

Jason cursed himself. He picked up that fantasy dark romance book so he could give a list of why those suck to Barbra. And then he liked it. Read the 2 published books three times and hated that it was another year for the third title to be released. Would he admit it was good wuen Barbra asks about it? Hell no. He would rather need to be dunked in the Lazarus Pit again than admit to her that he loves the plot.

Instead he felt he would pick at the side character and main character dynamics. Because he thought Y/n L/n would have made a better main character than the actual main character.

Angel was great. Classic good girl turns bad when she discovers how twisted the world was.

But Y/n was the type of character he rarely gets to read. Strong, sassy, flawed but not dramatic, never whines, more powerful than let on to be, and just seemed real. That and her soul dragon was rare, a summons ability.

He's infuriated that it is so under used and under developed.

Jason was skimming through some of the pages and brushing up on a few details regarding the soul dragons, when a soft glow illuminated his book. He groans.

Dick must have found his safe house and was using a flashlight to screw with him. Again.

Jason turns to his knees on the ancient lounge chair, putting the book on the box that is making due as a side table, and gets ready to flip his brother off.

But the light does not reveal his brother dangling upside down outside the window. It gets brighter. Blindingly bright. At first pure white, then a prismatic effect starts to swirl.

Jason feels like he's being pulled in. He gets up to back away only to find his feet falling through air instead of hitting the floor. The odd prism of light encompasses him fully as he falls. Then he finds himself landing feet first onto grass.

“It worked, right? There's a figure there, it has to be him right?!” A male says excitedly. “You figured it out! He's safe!”

Then a female replies, “Well, hold on now. I told you this was a shot in the dark. My dragon has not linked to a soul in a long time. This could be an enemy.”

The light dies out, the prisms fading to the dull look of a rainy forest, a woman with (hair length and color), and a male with strawberry blond hair that stands beside her. They look familiar, yet Jason knows he has never seen them before. How does he know them.

The male speaks up, “Uh… I don't think it worked actually…”

“No shit. Who are you?” The woman sasses her friend then instantly states firmly to Jason.

— Y/n —

Marcus is officially horrible. Y/n know she thinks that a lot but souls collide, how does she keep having faith he has something in that skull?

And who is this? His clothes are weird. His face is sharp, marred from a past trauma. That white streak in his hair somehow accents the blue in his eyes dramatically. Though he is confused, quite obviously, and on guard, Y/n's dragon and her sense no real threat. In fact, it seems his dragon is still sealed. Which is odd, considering he's clearly far past the age of soul collision.

“I will answer after you tell me.” The man says firm, his gravely tone matches his face oddly well. Though it also sounds practiced, a bravado to intimidate.

“I am Y/n L/n.” She responds, but before she can continue, he interrupts her.

“Y/n L/n, formerly of Noventi? Collided with…” His words are muffled by a firm hand as her (eye color) glare into his eyes.

“How would you know anything past Noventi? Who are you?” Y/n's tone is dangerously low, her free hand poised at the ready to summon my spirit blade.

The man's eyes go wide and he holds his hands up as if surrendered. He nods twice.

He knows the customs it seems. The agreement to comply, hands up to surrender and nod twice to confirm compliance.

Y/n removes her hand from his mouth, but the other stays poised at the ready.

“My name is Jason Todd. And I was brought here from a world where this is all a book… you are… were a character in a fantasy novel to me.” His tone is calm, cautious, and slightly in awe.

Y/n squints. Of all the explanations, this was not what she expected.

She mentally slaps herself before confirming with her dragon. ”Is this possible?”

“I told you this would summon the one you needed most at this moment. It appears you did not need the imbeciles brother, but did need this man from another world.” Her dragon, Slif says casually.

“Always the greatest help.” Y/n sasses at Slif before sighing. Jason. It fits, she supposes. “Very well. I have no reason to doubt you. But we will need to fix a few things. Namely your clothes for start.”

Slif huffs in a sound similar to a chuckle, “Always happy to oblige.”

Jason nods some. But he's fallen silent. Staring at her.

.

.

.

“Staring at me?!”

— Jason —

“It's her. Really her. She summoned me? And she just believes me? She had to have talked to Slif. I bet it was funny. Based on how she's dressed, chainmail on her shoulder is damaged, leathers are seared, clothes dirty, this has to be right after the last battle of book two. Which means I know nothing of what is about to happen. But they are in danger, and so am I now.” Jason's internal monolog starts, then he pauses.

Then catches up to what Y/n said just now. He looks down and sees his old, musty sweatpants and ragged t-shirt he's had for way too long. And bare feet.

He just met his latest favorite book character looking like a homeless man.

[alittledizzy]

this a big ask and feel free to ignore but you seem like the right person to come to.

can you give like a dnf overview for those of us who know almost nothing but are sooo curious (minecraft? face reveal? queer?)(i follow for dnp lol)

Okay so... I'm gonna try and do a bullet point overview and for the purpose of not getting in the weeds I am not going into the controversies. I'll be happy to discuss that part - OFF anon.

Dream and George met on a Minecraft server when Dream was 16, George was 18/19 and became best friends.

When Dream decided to start youtube when he was 18, he asked George (and Sapnap) to come along with him. They both said yes.

In 2019, George started talking about moving to America. At the time Dream lived with his girlfriend, though they broke up by 2020. (George and the girlfriend did not get along. But that's also a whole other can of worms because she fucked Dream up pretty badly with consistent cheating and verbal/physical abuse.)

Plans for George to move to the US got more concrete and at some point over 2021 became him moving into a house with Dream and Sapnap.

Dream also came out multiple times in this general period of time. He came out in a post on reddit, on twitter, and on a stream. He does not explicitly state that he's bisexual, but he does explicitly state he isn't straight.

Sapnap had already moved in with Dream for Dream's protection since he was being swatted pretty regularly. Dream had plans for a face reveal but people were stalking and harassing him both to 'reveal' him and also because at this point the Kiwi Farms targeted attack on him had gained a lot of steam.

Speaking of: George used face cam pretty regularly, but Dream did not face reveal. Based on things he's said it seems pretty clear he was trying to lose weight but at some point set the goal of face revealing once George was in America because he wanted George to see his face before anyone else.

George applied for his Visa and would have had about a 6-9 month wait, and then was denied. He had to apply a second time, and wait another extended period of time, which put it September 2022 when his visa finally was approved. This means they'd known each other for seven years and he'd been trying to move to the US to live with Dream for three years at that point.

George arrived in the US and Dream posted his first video with a face camera on. George posted a vlog meeting Dream irl for the first time, which is a great starting point for a watch.

In terms of the ship stuff: they've always had a heavily flirtatious relationship and Dream is open about how attractive he finds George. They've acknowledging having a conversation about if they'd date or not.

Once in a while Dream will reiterate that they're not dating, and we know he spent 2023 having a variety of hookups but no confirmed relationships. (Which lines up with his long history of women that flirt with him complaining he'll be great to them and make them feel good but always says he doesn't want a relationship.)

2023 was pretty wild for them in terms of nonstop travel, events, and making very little content besides Dream's music. So far in 2024 we've seen a complete 180 of that and Dream and George have noy traveled at all, staying at home in Orlando together. (Sapnap has traveled and spent time in LA, but alone.)

This is partially due to controversy, I'm sure, but also seems to be just in line with a rededicating of themselves to Minecraft and content impending. They're working on a project that hopefully will come out soon.

Right now in terms of what they've publicly told us, they're just in the category of Super Not Normal About Each Other. Here are a few of the Not Normal things that are just fun from a shippy pov:

Before George moved, they were open about living most of their life on a call together. This includes sleep calling and staying on the phone while taking showers.

One of Dream's early videos was gifting his friends money to thank them for supporting him. He gave Sapnap and another friend $500 each. He gave George $5000.

Dream took 'am I in love with my best friend' quizzes on stream twice with George on the call and neither treated it quite like a joke.

Dream sent George an oversized Dream hoodie which George has worn repeatedly and even admitted to spraying with cologne before he'd put it on. Dream took pictures of George in the hoodie (a private call, not one fans were in on) and then later shared them saying they were the cutest pictures of George ever.

The first time we really got to see them interact irl at length was a stream they did around Christmas. Here's a supercut that just really shows the vibe between them.

Initially in late 2022 Dream was wearing a very specific chain. At some point in January 2023, George started wearing that chain (the specific one Dream used to wear) and has not been spotted without it since.

At one of his concerts Dream described George as a friend he just met a year ago that he's so in love with.

The entire song Spotlight which everyone immediately associated with George, to George's embarrassment and pride.

And there's obviously way more... but I feel like this is a good starter kit for Them.

[the---hermit]

my physical tbr

While writing my reflections on my 2024 reading goals I realized that I should probably talk about my physical tbr a bit. One of my goals for the year was to decrease my physical tbr, and I did, by a few books, but I am aware I have a very specific way of thinking about my physical tbr and the books I buy so why not waste everyone's time with another long postTM.

I mentally divide my physical tbr in very different sections that I approach in different ways. Firstly we have the books I buy during the year, they are not part of the physical tbr in my mind. They are a thing of their own. For quite a few years now my main reading goal has always been reading the books I buy right away. The real goal is to be as mindful as I can about what I buy, which means getting things I know I want to read right away. Of course every now and then I end up buying a "acorn books" (people who listen to books unbound know, but basically they are books you get knowing they will stay unread for a while, like a squirrel collects acorns for winter). These specific books will eventually become part of my physical tbr, and I know that when I am buying them. It is very rare I buy a book I think I will read soon and then leave it to rot on my shelves. Anyway the books I buy during the year are placed on a shelf I have by my bed as that is my immediate tbr shelf, and once they have been read they are crossed out from my list of "book bought this year" and find their place on my main bookshelves.

Then we have my actualy physical tbr, so all the books I own, that I have been collecting from years and years and somehow have not been read yet. All the books that I have dnf-ed and that I still own for a reason or another are not considered in this section, they are a specific group. I don't have a lot of dnfs on my shelves, because they aren't too common and I often end up getting rid of them. But there's a few books I still keep because I might end up giving them a second chance in the future, I haven't fully given up on them. So, my physical tbr is mixed with all my other books, but I have a list on my reading journal, so I can cross the books once I have read them. I rewrite this list every year for two reasons: firstly I might get rid of stuff when I declutter and reorganize my shelves during the year, and I have to add the acorn books I might have gotten during the previous year. And of course I will not write down all the books I have actually read during the previous year. This way every year I have a clear view of what I have finally got off my physical tbr because I either read or dnf-ed it, and at the beginning of the year I havea clear overview of all my unread options, which is very exciting.

This physical tbr has very specific sections. Firstly there should be a graphic novels/graphic non-fiction section, except I have no unread graphic books in my collection. I have conquered that tbr a few years ago (and have regretted it ever since, but more on this later). Then I have a non-fiction tbr and a fiction tbr. The latter has one specific section inside of it, which includes a very specific collection of classic books. They came out as a collection a few years ago, they were a weekly release with a newspaper, and are all classics from the early fantasy, horror and scifi genres. I consider them as a section of their own for two reasons: firstly they have increased my tbr by a lot in a short amount of time, because as I said they came out weekly over a year and I got 51 of these books (fear not I have read almost half of them now). Secondly they are classics, so I need to be in the right mindset to get to them because they are definitely not the most lighthearted read I can go for. When I was getting them I was very well aware I was going to need years to read them all, and to be honest I am fine with it, I know that when I am in a mood for classics I have quite a few options ready for me. My regular fiction tbr is quite short actually, half of it, if not more, is made up of books that were gifted to me, so books I didn't conciously add to my tbr and therefore have not read right away. To be honest some of these I don't even know if I'll ever get to, but for the time being they'll stay on my shelves. The remaining books on this shelf are those acorn books I have mentioned before. As for my non fiction tbr, it's made up of mainly historical non fiction, which is also what I have to read for uni since I am an history major. Which of course means that during the year I get one or two books read in my free time and no more than that. I have to focus on uni books until I am studying, so again most of this section of my tbr will get read in the far future, and that's okay.

This means that most of my physical tbr right now can be seen through the metaphor of the wine cellar bookshelf. You may have heard it online, to be honest I am not sure who is the person who came up with the concept, but I really like it, because it clearly resonates with me. The idea is that you can think of the unread books on your shelves as bottles of wine in cellar. Each book is there waiting for you to pick it up in the right moment of your life when you'll be able to savour it and enjoy it the most. Which also means that a lot of those books will stay unread for years maybe. In the past I have been tempted to try and make my physical tbr as small as possible, but it just can't work for me. I am a mood reader which means I will not force myself to read a book just because it's there, and most importanly I really like to be able to look at my shelves as see options for new reads. And here come my regrets of having completly conquered my graphic novel tbr. I hate that if I am in the mood for a new graphic novel my only option is to go and buy a new one. For some people having a minimal tbr might be very freeing, apparetly to me it's not. I like to have a tbr with books that were picked mindfully, so you will not see me going on a shopping spree and buy random stuff, because as I said I consider each book I buy as well as I can before actually getting it. But also I don't think I'd be happy having shelves of fully read books. I do have a goal of not increasing my tbr too much, and honestly I am pretty sure that ever since I started keep an account of it, my tbr has actually decreased by a few books each year (even though I always end up with a few new unread books at the end of each year). So far this year my physical tbr has decreased of 16 books despite having some acorn books additions.

I don't know how to conclude it, I get that a lot of people feel stressed by the idea of having a lot of unread books, but I think I have found my personal system and it works very well for me. Keeping a list of the unread books of the start of the year, from which I cross off my reads has been very helpful. And keeping a list of the books I am buying during the year, to again cross off what I am reading has also been incredibly good to stay mindful of my additions to my shelves. Overall as I said I think in the last four or five years I think I really found a system that works for me, which also means that I came to the conclusion that I will be not doing any more tbr challenges, or specific years tbr lists to get books read. I am too much of a mood reader to do so. I will keep an account of what I am reading, adding and taking off my shelves, because that is what works best for me.

[theinquisitxor]

December 2024 Reading Wrap Up

This is it folks! Last wrap up of the year! I read 8 books in December and had 1 dnf. I was able to complete the two series I wanted to before the end of the year, and finished my on-going goals.

1.Seer of Sevenwaters by Juliet Mariller, 4/5 stars. This is the 5th book in the series, and a solid installment. Not my favorite of the series, but not bad. I just didn't love it as much as the other books, and things felt very slow at times.

2.Conrad's Fate (Chrestomanci 5) by Diana Wynne Jones, 4/5 stars. I enjoyed this one more than the previous two I read, and really liked being with Christopher and Millie again on a new adventure.

3.The Pinhoe Egg (Chrestomanci 6) by Diana Wynne Jones, 3.5/5 stars. I finished this series-yay! This was a fun installment, and it was nice to catch up with Cat. I'm glad I was able to read some new DJW this year.

4.The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe by Matthew Gabriele. My nonfiction book for the month, and one of my Random TBR picks. I thought this was a good overview of the middle ages, debunking the "dark ages" stereotype around this time period.

5.Midnight In Everwood by Maria Kuzinar, 2/5 stars. This was my other Random TBR pick for the month. I was actually very happy I got this, as it is a christmas-y book and nutcracker retelling. I love the nutcracker fairy tale, so I was interested in this retelling, but this book was so bad. The writing was bad, the plot was bad, the ending was bad 😂

6. Flame of Sevenwaters (Sevenwaters 6) by Juliet Marillier, 4.5/5 stars. This was a good conclusion to this series and the second story arc. I liked Maeve a lot as a character and her journey. This one reminded me a bit of Heir to Sevenwaters. The romance in this book was the only thing that was a little weird to me.

7.The Fur Person by May Sarton, 5/5 stars. This is a novella from the perspective of Sarton's cat. It's one of the best representations of a cat's pov in my opinion, and follows Tom Jones as he goes from being a 'Cat About Town' to a housecat. It was a lovely little read.

8. A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold, 4/5 stars. This is a collection of essays about land conservation from Leopold's farm in Wisconsin. This is a foundational piece of nature writing that I wanted to read.

DNF: At the beginning of December I picked up The Virgin in the Garden by AS Byatt, as I've been wanting to read more Byatt books. I read about 20%, but I could just not get into it. Maybe one day I'll pick it back up.

[pro-cycling-primers]

🏁 Types of races 🏁

As promised in my general introductory post, this is going to be an overview of the two different types of races that are contested in professional cycling.

One-day races 📅

Exactly what it says on the tin! Start in one town, finish in another, difficult stuff in between and the first rider across the line is the winner. That last bit's obvious but when we have a look at stage races it's not always that simple!

DNF numbers can be relatively high and racing can be very aggressive with no need to save energy for the next day (except for other races that might be happening in the next few days), with different races favouring different kinds of riders. Women's races are usually 150-200km, and men's are typically 180-250km (but can be longer)

A couple of recent ones with good highlights clips that I think are worth watching: men's Milano-San Remo 2022, women's Paris-Roubaix 2023, the Amstel Gold Race both the women's in 2024 and men's in 2019. Also the 2023 World Championships men's road race but WCs and how they work warrants another post.

Stage races 🗓

As if one day wasn't hard enough, much of the cycling calendar is made up of races that range from less than week to nearly a month: the longest are the men's Grand Tours, 21 stages across 23 days (two rest days).

The overall winner of a stage race is the rider with the lowest combined time across all stages, but every stage also has an individual winner. Stages are usually shorter than one-day races, and a rider must finish each stage within a time limit (percentage of the winner's time) in order to start the next.

In the aim of giving a thorough explanation but at the risk of being patronising; I've drawn up a simplified and exaggerated results table for a stage race to illustrate how General Classification works. Skip the bullet-pointed section if you get it.

(Unlike the very real five or six stages of the 4 Jours de Dunkerque, it actually lasts the stated number of days.)

Through some shocking organisational misfiring, only three riders are competing in the TJT. The UCI will likely be fining me several thousand Swiss Francs for this and preventing me from organising any further events, but we press on.

Annemiek Generieke takes a definitive victory in stage 1, her closest competition coming in nearly ten minutes down.

As she has the lowest accumulated time, Generieke starts in the leader's jersey for stage 2 (underlined). Perhaps exhausted by her previous efforts the day before, she finishes in last place with Ciclista beating Blanks by only one minute.

Blanks made up enough time on Generieke to now have the lowest accumulated time - she is leading the GC, so wears the leader's jersey for stage 3.

Ciclista wins her second stage but Blanks rides tactically to ensure she doesn't lose time and thus keeps the leader's jersey.

Brody Blanks wins the inaugaural (and final) Trois Jours de Tumbler with a time of 8 hours 55 minutes!

It's certainly for a GC winner to win a race without winning any stages - see 2017 men's Tour de France - but they'll usually win at least one. Successful GC campaigns require a team to work together to protect their leader and ensure they don't lose time to their rivals. GC riders are often exceptional climbers as the mountains are where the biggest time gaps are created, decent time-trialists, and especially gifted at recovery, staying consistent enough throughout a race to remain competitive.

Not every rider or team in the race is there to win GC: some will be teammates of leaders, others will be there to win as many stages as they can, or target one of the secondary classifications: points, climber's, youth, and team, (plus some other prizes) which I'll go into in a different post.

Thanks for reading, and see you later in the season!

[sketchehm]

So something that spins in my brain a lot is Sapnap's reaction to Dream and George's uh..."arrival". This is a lot scattered thoughts but I need to put it down to make more sense of it myself...so enjoy this general overview lmao

It's just the amount of guilt he feels. A lot of self hate happening.

There's just been so many fun and cozy asks and Sapnap loving everyone, but it plagues the back of my mind that...it will take forever before Sapnap can truly realize he /can/ love everyone. That everyone /still/ and has /never/ stopped loving him.

It's a lot of tiptoeing around the people he loves, Team Mafia and Dnf alike, because he doesn't know /who/ to be loyal to anymore.

Everyone is together. Everyone is acting....tense but more or less respectful to each other. Dream and George are constantly asking him questions and trying to figure out how to escape. And Sapnap doesn't know if he really wants to. They're here now. Why should they want to leave? No more danger. They can just stay in this one room forever and ever and it'll be fine. It'll be fine....If nothing changes then nothing can get worse....He can't do worse.

Different members of the team /do/ try to show off that Sapnap is one of them now and it hurts Sapnap a lot. They show off all the commands that he will follow. Look how well behaved he is! (Look at what a good dog they've trained him to be for them.)

It's embarrassing. But it's also...a comfort to him. They still want him...even if it's to scare Dream and George.

Because they /are/ horrified by it. They let Sapnap with these guys who obviously have manipulated him to this degree. (There was just so much love. So much love he wasn't getting anymore when with Dream's family. It was so cold there....How could he ever admit that to Dream and George?)

But Sapnap won't speak to the Team members again. Because Dream is supposed to speak for him. That's how it's supposed to be. And he can see the hurt in Serpias' eyes when he doesn't say "te amo" back to him. He can see the frustration when that's the only command he's ignoring from them (surely serpias doesnt mean it either. Its just another way to show how much of a traitor he is. Show how he's gone and fell in love with them and didn't stay loyal to just Dream and George. How bad he is.)

He's being fought over. And it's causing his self hatred to grow and grow.

The Team and Dnf will slowly grow closer with each other, getting to know one another, but I have it in my head that Sapnap doesn't truly realize that's happening. He's so trapped in his own head.

When he accidentally slips little details about each member, showing how much he knows and appreciates them...how he clings to George and Dream whenever they visit....how he lights up for a second when either side compliments him when he knows that's /wrong/ cause he's undeserving.

How could Dream or George ever truly love him again? How could Team Mafia ever trust him again?

He's bad. He's so so bad.

But no one is saying it out loud.

He's just been spoiled and this is his punishment.

(He's not sure what that even means himself. But the bad he feels. How he feels he's so undeserving of love(just like Q said.) That must be his punishment.)

He's asked George and Dream to marry him so he can feel like they won't ever leave him. Not after he's so blatantly betrayed them (he didn't. He never would. He just wanted to save them.) But he knows it's wrong. He's trapped with them now in this tiny room and he will scrap and trap any kind of love before he knows it'll come crashing down.

Soon. Eventually. Surely.

(And it won't. Because the Team and Dnf will become infinitely closer. They will learn to love each other too. But Sapnap will wait for the other shoe to drop every day. Waiting for the day they realize how selfish he is. What a bad dog he is.)

[boxboxblog]

Imola GP 2025: Brief Race Overview

Bit late to the party here, but c'est la vie I suppose. Anyway, let's dive into the race.

Well that sure was interesting. I really didn't expect much from this GP, Imola has never really been a very exciting track in my opinion, but this really was a classic. Safety cars a plenty, dramatic strategy decisions that either worked out very well or fell apart, some great overtaking, multiple mechanical failures, and in truth, a surprise winner. Well, perhaps not too much of a surprise considering who it is. Welcome back to the top step Max Verstappen.

There were a lot of stand out moments in this race. The first corner overtake Verstappen did on Piastri was absolutely gorgeous. Measured aggression mixed with just plain instinct saw him surprise everyone, perhaps even himself, by taking the early race lead and not once giving it up. He was able to keep ahead of Piastri's much faster McLaren, and then benefited heavily from the VSC, which gave him and almost 20 second lead for a majority of the race. That was only cut down when an actual safety car came out later, but still he kept the lead.

Further back we saw a whole hubabaloo of drivers having glorious moments, then terrible ones. The safety cars really messed with people during this race, and I swear we saw so much mix up I couldn't keep track of people's net positions until the final safety car ended and it became clear no more craziness would occur. All I know for sure is that the biggest combined team climb came from the Ferrari's, though that was not without it's.... drama. Because of course, they are the most tragic form of entertainment this year. But really, the safety cars really ruined or really helped drivers races. Alonso for example got jipped by it, as did Stroll, Leclerc, and Russell. Verstappen benefitted, as did Hamilton, Tsunoda, and Norris. So really mixed bag for the entire grid.

On a very negative note, both Esteban Ocon and Kimi Antonelli had to retire from this race to to mechanical failures of some kind. A shame for both of them. Ocon has been in great form lately, though not really this weekend, and this was Antonelli's first home race. A shame for him, his twenty classmates who were brought to the race, and Italian fans everywhere.

Anyway, I will dive into the specifics of certain driver's races in my winners and losers post.

Race Results:

Max Verstappen +1

Lando Norris+2

Oscar Piastri -2

Lewis Hamilton +8

Alex Albon +2

Charles Leclerc +5

George Russell -4

Carlos Sainz -2

Isak Hadjar

Yuki Tsunoda +10

Fernando Alonso -6

Nico Hulkenberg +5

Pierre Gasly -3

Liam Lawson +2

Lance Stroll -7

Franco Colapinto -1

Ollie Bearman +2

Gabriel Bortoleto -4

Kimi Antonelli (DNF)

Esteban Ocon (DNF)

Cheers,

-B

[the-chaotic-snek]

Today's Race! (China GP)

China Grand Prix - Shanghai International Circuit Zhou Guanyu's Home Race - He races for Kick Sauber Finished at p17 Max Verstappen (redbull racing) - p1 (whO wOulD Have KnOwN) Lando Norris (McLaren) - p2 Sergio Perez (redbull racing) - p3 Other notable positions: C. Leclerc & C.Sainz - p4 & p5 respectively Events - VSC (lap 21) SC - (lap 23) DNF - Bottas(Kick Sauber), Tsunoda ( Visa Cash App RB) D. Riccardo pushed by L. Stroll (Aston Marton) - L. stroll also lapped C. Leclerc at p3 for a decent amt of laps (overtaken by S. Perez ofc) A. Fernando dropped to p12 and finished at p7

Alpine set floor upgrades that were originally scheduled for Miami Gp 24

(P.S. This is my first review/overview of f1 races, if I can ill try doing this for the next races and maybe qualies as well, if there are any corrections please comment!)

[aflyingcontradiction]

13 books

Tagged by @nikita-not-nikola to answer 13 questions, and then tag 13 people. Thank you very much!

1) The last book I read:

Jasper Fforde's The Constant Rabbit - it's a very lampshadey sort of satire, quite witty, but by far not the best Jasper Fforde book I've read (that honour would go to the unfortunately named Shades of Grey)

2) A book I recommend:

Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone - I've not seen a lot of chatter about the Craft Sequence around these parts, even though clever fantasy settings with unique worldbuilding and an ensemble cast of diverse characters (many of them queer) seem to be tumblr's jam. So I'll take this opportunity to go "That one! That's a good one!"

3) A book that I couldn’t put down:

In a literal "read it cover to cover sense", I genuinely don't remember the last time that happened. Did that all the time as a kid, but I read in smaller chunks these days. In a "this was extremely captivating" sense, though, Harrow the Ninth was pretty riveting!

4) A book I’ve read twice (or more):

Recently, a lot of them! I've been decluttering my bookshelf so almost everything that's on there is getting a re-read. One of the many that truly deserved it, though, is China Miéville's Railsea.

5) A book on my TBR:

I've got my TBR down to only about 15-ish books, of which "Infect your Friends and Loved Ones" has been on there longest, but it seems a bit hard to find so it'll probably stay on there for a while.

6) A book I’ve put down:

I don't tend to put down books lightly. I usually struggle through them, then end up giving them a bad review :P The last DNF I remember was Sacred Pain: Hurting the Body for the Sake of the Soul. But that wasn't the book's fault, I was expecting a historical overview of pain used deliberately in spirituality and it was more about the philosophy/psychology of pain (and extremely densely written at that)

7) A book on my wish list:

Shubeik Lubeik by Deena Mohamed

8) A favorite book from childhood:

Alright, let's try to NOT go for the obvious here... The Neverending Story by Michael Ende (if you've seen the movie you really, really ought to read the book. The movie ends before all the most interesting plotlines in the book even START).

9) A book you would give to a friend:

I mean, depends on the friend, doesn't it? So, semi-random pick from my recent re-reads: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty

10) A book of poetry or lyrics that you own

Oooh, I got this really neat book of German poetry for Christmas - Deutsche Gedichte - 1500 Gedichte von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart (does what it says on the tin, really).

11) A nonfiction book you own:

How To Invent Everything by Ryan North

12) What are you currently reading:

A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin

13) What are you planning on reading next?

I let a random number generator decide which book on my tbr pile I read next so no idea.

Alright, let's get to the tagging (no pressure, of course!): @lovethatcoat, @toasthaste, @autogeneity, @ante--meridiem, @soryualeksi, @bakomglaset, @deliciousghosts-unofficial, @shabbytigers, @octopuscato, @titaniumelemental and whoever else feels like doing this

[wearethekat]

January Book Review Overview

Amatka (Karin Tidbeck)

The Pillar (Kim Fielding)

Gothictown (Emily Carpenter)

Once Was Willem (MR Carey)

Single Player (Tara Tai)

The Ministry of Time (Kaliane Bradley)

Murder by Memory (Olivia Waite)

Direct Descendant (Tanya Huff)

Nicked (MT Anderson)

Fella Enchanted (SO Callahan)

Hammajang Luck (Makana Yamamoto)

Embodied Exegesis (ed. Ann Leblanc)

A Brother's Price (Wen Spencer)

Death of the Author (Nnedi Okorafor)

A Palace Near the Wind (Ai Jiang)

The Queen of Fives (Alex Hay)

The Rainfall Market (You Yeong-Gwang)

The Legend of Meneka (Kritika Rao)

The Good Women of Fudi (Liu Hong)

The Mountain in the Sea (Ray Nayler)

Haunt Sweet Home (Sarah Pinsker)

The Serpent Called Mercy (Roanne Lau)

The King's Messenger (Susanna Kearsley)

DNF:

This Body's Not Big Enough for Both of Us (Edgar Cantero)

North is the Night (Emily Rath)

The Empress (Kristin Cast)

The Failures (Benjamin Liar)

Lightfall (Ed Crocker)

Water Moon (Samantha Sotto Yambao)

[cultivating-wildflowers]

2024 Reading - November

I started off with a reading plan in mind for November (read the books on my shelf!) and almost immediately got sidetracked with a couple of series (not on my shelf!). Two attempts at a "Q" title failed; and for the first month this year, I didn't so much as touch a nonfiction. (I had one all ready to go but couldn't focus on it.) But I had fun, and I’m content to have narrowly completed the requisite eight books this month.

Total books: 8 |  New reads: 6 |   2024 TBR completed: 2 (1 DNF) / 35/36 total   |   2024 Reading Goal: 82/100

October | December

potential reading list from November 1st

#1 - Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett - 5/5 stars

Reading this on the heels of Witches Abroad was absolute fun, because it picks up almost where Witches Abroad left off and all of the chaos just flows into a new narrative.

And awwwwww, Magrat!!! I loved her in this one.

#2 - Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger - 5/5 stars (audio)

Note: If you want a more squeal-filled overview of my thoughts on this series, I answered Penni's ask about it here. (Thank you again for the rec, Penni!!) That was written as I was just getting into the third book, but it holds true for the whole series.

Ahhhh, this book was so much fun! I can see why my mutuals recommend it. The cast absolutely shines, and they feel so authentic for their time period of the 1850's. Sophronia had the potential to be obnoxious, a know-it-all, impossibly clever, or insufferably whiny and argumentative, but she was none of that; she was a fun, inquisitive main character who understood her faults, leaned into her strengths, and knew how to rely on other people for help. I loved her to bits. The rest of the characters were just as colorful and came together to create a delightful story that never let up. Y'all weren't kidding, this was an absolute treat! I will definitely be recommending this one.

Also, the narrator was perfect. She nailed the dialogue. Only complaint: she didn’t pronounce “Sidheag” correctly. I actually thought it was Sidhe until I read some reviews. (Which, upon reflection, wouldn't entirely make sense as a name. I've just read a lot of stories with faeries lately.)

More like this: "Princess Academy" by Shannon Hale; "The Thirteenth Child" by Patricia C. Wrede; "A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking" by T. Kingfisher; the Chrestromanci series by Diana Wynne Jones. It also vaguely reminded me of "The Paper Magician" by Charlie N. Holmberg, but for a younger audience. Ironically, only one of the books on this list doesn't have magic, and neither does Etiquette and Espionage. But it has vampires and werewolves, so that has to count for something.

#3 - Curtsies & Conspiracies by Gail Carriger - 4/5 stars (audio)

Don't ask me what happened in this book because I don't know. I just know it made me laugh several times. I'm also recognizing Carriger's formula (at least for this series) and it's predictable but it's fun!

My only complaint is that Sophronia is becoming a bit more of everyone's very special girl, and I was hoping that wouldn't happen. I do like that she still knows there is strength in the friend group.

#4 - Waistcoats & Weaponry by Gail Carriger - 5/5 stars (audio)

I loved that consequences were examined early on in this one. Yes, the espionage school is a delightful angle, but it's not often we get to move past the glamor and drama and say "hey, people are actually going to get hurt, and the people hurting them are also human". It's nice.

I mean, the consequences themselves aren't nice. But that is one way to muddle a love triangle....

On the other hand, the ages are starting to confuse me. Sophronia was 14 (a year older than her classmates) when the series started and, while I have no idea when her birthday is, I think it's only like...just over a year since the first book and now she's 16?

#5 - Manners & Mutiny by Gail Carriger - 5/5 stars (audio)

Another time jump for this one, and everything rushes toward an ending. I really wasn't sure how Carriger was going to wrap up everything in a satisfying conclusion--even at the halfway mark I was worried.

Silly me, of course. That was a splendid conclusion! And once again I love that despite Sophronia being the best intelligentsia the world has seen (at least in a while), she never accomplishes the impossible on her own. There's always someone beside her to help carry the weight, and she asks them to help. It's nice.

Overall, a fantastic series. Absolute fun and, while largely light-hearted, not so to the point of fluff. I had a wonderful time.

More like this: Weirdly, by this final installment, I kept thinking of the City Between series. On the surface the only thing they have in common is vampires, so my guess is it has something to do with style--in writing and/or in the cast. Carriger is stronger with endings than Gingell, but otherwise I'd say I enjoyed them both to the same degree. Also, they both have amazing audiobook narrators.

#6 - We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor - 4/5 stars (reread) - 80th read of the year!

I found this series at random back in 2017, when it was still just a trilogy, and tore through it. Weirdly enough, it's one of those stories that's stuck with me. Then I discovered there are two new additions to the series (one published this year) and I decided it was time for a reread.

This isn't the sort of book I would ever expect to enjoy. I don't typically go for stories featuring clones, or consciousnesses uploaded into computers, or universe-sweeping discoveries--but I guess I found it at the perfect time.

It holds up on a reread, despite a rocky start. Something about Taylor's writing just works. It's not fancy (his main character, Bob, is best friends with characters named Carl, Alan, and Karen), and at times the dialogue is stilted, but it flows well, driven by a hilariously pragmatic main character and under-girded with just enough sci-fi mumbo-jumbo to feel clever without getting too technical.

More like this: "The Martian" by Andy Weir; "Old Man's War" by John Scalzi.

#7 - For We Are Many by Dennis E. Taylor - 4/5 stars (reread)

This whole series reads like one continuous story broken up into volumes, which explains why the installments were impossible to differentiate in my memory of reading them the first time. Something that happens right at the end of this book is one of the big things I remember from the series.

This installment remains a fun, somewhat silly read. I had to make myself ignore what looked to me like a pretty obvious plot hole, and things kept moving quickly enough that there wasn’t really time to rubberneck. For anyone considering checking out this series, know that the chapters tend to be quite short and there's a lot of POV changing. (Though it hardly feels like a change because, y'know, clones.)

#8 - All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, tr. A.W. Wheen - 5/5 stars ('24 TBR, audio)

I knew this book would be a heavy one, but wow.

Books I would make GRRM to read, though I’m confident he wouldn’t get it.

More like this: The style/tone reminded me STRONGLY of Cormac McCarthy. Other than that, I haven't read much like it, though even in a line-up of "war novels", I'm confident it would stand out.

Honorable Mention Short Stories:

The Star by Arthur C. Clarke - Holy. Cow. That was a gut punch. I feel like the Inklings circle here (and adjacent folks) would go ham in a discussion about this one. Shout out to Lyds for recommending it, and I NEED to get my hands on more of Clarke's work. (He's been on my list, but here I am. Drowning in that list.)

DNF:

The Quiet at the End of the World by Lauren James ('24 TBR) - This is the second Lauren James book I've read and, as much as I love her concepts, I really struggle with her execution. It's fine if you don't squint. But I squinted and all I could see were plot holes. So I looked up reviews, accidentally found a spoiler for the big twist, and got plain irritated. Plus, the environmental overtones and token character identity markers were irritating from the get-go, even knowing what I do of James's style.

The Queen's Blade by T.C. Southwell - Lost me on the first page when the readers are told that the citizens pay their taxes in gold and, having no other use for it, the royals use it to guild their halls. In a kingdom fighting an Endless War so endless it's capitalized. Um. I gave it until the end of the first chapter to see how it would progress, but I can tell the style isn't for me. The desperate scrabbling for a "Q" title proceeds.

[the-crystalized-cosmos]

Welcome to The Crystalized Cosmos

[PT: Welcome to The Crystalized Cosmos /end PT]

This is a place for us to coin terms, share our wordmojis, as well as just kinda do our own thing. Everything will be tagged, so if you don't want to see one of those, feel free to block that tag. Most of the terms we use are easily found upon googling, but feel free to ask what something means! General Heads up that we are not consistent! We may post several things at once, then nothing for a week. Energy varies, we'll be back soon enough.

There's a lot more under the cut, including a general "About Us" section, BYF/DNI, how we handle various accessibility features, and a general overview of our tagging system. Fair Warning it is long, but sectioned to help against some of the visual overwhelmingness.

Pronouns and general info can be found on our pronouns.cc (pronouns.cc link). All terms and flags are free to use by anyone. Anyone can make an alt flag/synonym for our term. Please just give us credit for the original coining.

[ID: A thin light red line. /End ID]

About Us

[PT: About us /End PT]

We're a system primarily made up of 2 side systems and a large sparsystem, and a second sparsystem. We're a mediple mixed origin specutien system, however specifics differ between sisasystems. Our overall host (and main blog keeper) is Zev, who has been frontstuck most of our life. Overall we're trans nonbinary genderfluid, aspec omni, and polyamorous, though obviously this differs by headmate. We're also intersex.

We are both neurodivergent and physically disabled in several ways. This includes Autism and ADHD, Multiple Personality Disorders, RSD, a Tic Disorder, Breathing Problems, and more. We are currently a nearly full time cane user (full time when not home, part time at home), and are a part time AAC user due to speech and typing ability loss episodes.

More info on individual blog keepers can be found at on our pronouns.cc (pronouns.cc link) but it is a huge wip currently, so be warned.

[ID: A thin light yellow line. /End ID]

BYF: (Before You Follow)

[PT: BYF: (Before You Follow) /End PT]

Our "Before You Follow" list is a list of our identities/beliefs that may make you want to not interact with us, however we have no rules around any interactions revolving things on this list.

We are bodily an adult

We are not comfortable using Tulpa for our created headmates in any way, however do not care if someone else uses it.

There will probably be cussing on this page. It will be tagged, but you've been warned.

We reclaim slurs, a lot. We, collectively and as individuals, find them important to our identity. They will be tagged, but not TW or CW.

[ID: A thin light green line. /End ID]

DNI/DNF: (Do Not Interact/Do Not Follow)

[PT: DNI/DNF: (Do Not Interact/Do Not Follow) /End PT]

Anti Endos, Sysmeds

Anyone fine with sharing anti-endo rhetoric/post into spaces that are supposed to be safe spaces for endos. We're fine if you interact (comment, reblog, etc), but don't want you following. An exception is wikis and archive blogs. This rule is loose, and we are more lenient on it, but trust our personal moderation for us best.

Anti Mspec Monos (bi lesbian, omni turian, etc)

Anti Lesboys, Turigirls, etc

Don't believe being any form of Aspec or Intersex is inherently queer on its own.

Anti Xeno- or otherwise Neo- genders, Anti Neopronouns or other form of Pronoun Nonconformity (She/Her Gays, He/Him Nonbinary, etc)

Believe non-physical disabilities belong in cripple punk (I will not debate what counts as physically disabled. If you use the label physically disabled, you can be a part of cripple punk, if you do not, you are not a part of it).

Radqueer/TransID (TransID in the Radqueer way specifically, not from the communities they stole terms from)

Generally a bigot (Homophobic, Transphobic, Racist, Ableist, you get the point)

We reserve the right to block whoever we want for any reason we want (and do), and encourage you to do the same.

[ID: A thin light blue line. /End ID]

Accessibility

[PT: Accessibility /End PT]

Plain Text:

Plain text is text that a screen reader can read without breaking, and in Tumblr is needed for everything that is not regular text (like this), a list format, and indented text.

We add plain text in the following format you've seen throughout this post which is [PT: example /End PT]. We also make it indented for easier visual separation.

"Why do you bother using formats if you have to write plain text?"

We mostly use plain text for Header formats. This is because headers help us not get visually overwhelmed when reading our posts, and make it easier for us to read.

Image Descriptions:

An Image Description is a text describing what an image looks like. We will primarily do these for flags, emojis, and dividers as we don't plan to post any other pictures (but will describe all images we post).

Image Descriptions follow the format you've seen in this post, and look like the following [ID: example /End ID], and are indented for easy visual separation.

"Why don't you use alt text?"

We don't use alt text for a few reasons! 1: it commonly breaks on tumblr, while in-post IDs don't. 2: we actually find them inaccessible! While we don't need them for most posts, images with a lot of words are inaccessible to us, as we cannot highlight to keep track of words, and cannot read it otherwise. Alt text is not highlightable! So it is just as inaccessible to us as the image itself for us.

Dividers and Headers:

As mentioned, and as you have likely noticed, we use both dividers and headers a lot in our posts. While we understand this isn't the most accessible to screen readers, we tend to get very visually overwhelmed when looking at long posts without separation. Headers and Dividers make finding parts of a post fast, easy, and mean we can read back our own posts. But as stated we always transcribe these for screen readers, and keep it simple too avoid overwhelming everyone.

TQs:

This is a section we will add to, once we've decided how we plan to handle this.

However, some of us do have involuntary TQs, and it causes us the same pain to translate in the moment as it does trying to force a not scribal headmate to type. It doesn't work.

They are allowed to make posts here. This is not debatable. We are currently trying to figure out the best accessibility option on posts, that doesn't require completely erasing their TQs, as that is a part of them and deserves as much recognition as a member not being able to talk or type.

These posts will be tagged, and we understand sometimes access needs are incompatible. However, if you will be pissy about this, get out. We will not debate the validity of what you think members "can" do, or "should" do.

[ID: A thin light purple line. /End ID]

Tagging Format

[PT: Tagging Format /End PT]

This is not a comprehensive list of common tags on post, but just general guide to how we tag stuff.

Poster:

Each post will be signed by who posted it with a dash (-) after the hashtag and before the name (ex: #-Zev). If multiple folks post together, each name will be separate (ex: #-Scribs #-Adrian). You may also see roles if it's from just most or all of the folks who have that role (ex: #-NPD Holders).

Along with this, you may see #-Translator for some folks who cannot type on their own. We wont put who the translator was as to keep the focus on who created the post, whether they typed it or not.

We also tag reblogs as #-Reblog and add the member who reposted it (so if Zev reblogs something, you'll see both #-Reblog and #-Zev)

Accessibility Tags:

We tag posts as either #Has PT or #Needs PT if they have or need plain text respectively. Same with #Has ID or #Needs ID.

We will tag any posts we suspect of being eyestrain-y as #Eyestrain. This helps us immensely, and helps a lot of others too. However despite being heavily affected, we may miss something. If you find something eyestrain-y that we do not tag, please either send us an ask or message us! Preferably with the link.

We also plan to tag any posts with a non screen reader safe Typing Quirk as #TQ and #No PT.

We will not be posting any videos with jump scares or flashing lights, and therefore do not have tags for them.

Please let us know if we need to tag anything else for accessibility!

Slurs and Cussing:

We will not tag usage of slurs with a TW or CW. We will instead tag them as #Reclaimed Slur as well as the slur itself like #Cripple.

We do not tag individual cuss words, nor do we tag these as a TW or CW, but just tag them in general as #Cussing.

Creations:

We plan on coining terms (as well as flags to go with most if not all the flags), as well as wordmojis (emojis of words) that we use for communication. While we don't actively advertise requests, we are willing to at least contemplate requests (and very likely to do it for wordmojis, terms take more energy).

We will tag terms as #Terms, flags as #Flags, wordmojis as #Wordmojis and #Custom Emoji. They will also be tagged as other things related to it (so queer centered wordmojis will be tagged as #queer wordmojis and what the actual words are such as #lesbian wordmojis).

However #Terms, #Flags, and #Wordmojis are good things to search if you're looking for something here!

Bonus Tags!

#Hazrds Hoard - Hazards identities #I refuse to be silent - Blade's (mostly punk) stuff

Other Things To Look Out For:

This blog will likely have bug talk, and bug pics, tagged as #Bugs #TW Bugs #Bug Talk and #Bugs #TW Bugs #Bug Pics respectively.

We are also likely to posts Vents (#Venting), and Complaints (#Complaining) so feel free to block that if you want. (Vent is more heavy than complaints, complaints tend to be little things that annoy us).

We also tag especially system/plurality focused posts as #Pro Endo and #Endo Safe.

Again, this is not an exhaustive list, but might help some folks better filter content.

[mcytrecursive]

Nomination Overview - Humour

Well, most of the creators we follow are comedians of some sort or another. Stands to reason that the fandom appreciates humour. To the tune of 17 nominated source materials, in fact!

Title: Fallen Stars Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/3653119 Fandom: Hermitcraft SMP Author: boxmakerr Relationships: Ethoslab & VintageBeef ; BdoubleO100 & EthosLab & VintageBeef ; Cubfan135 & GoodTimesWithScar Characters: Ethoslab, Vintage Beef, BdoubleO100, Cubfan135, GoodtimesWithScar, Zombiecleo, Iskall85 Length of the work: 109,567 words (incomplete fic) Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama, Humour, Hurt/Comfort, Superhero/Superpower AU Type: Fic Summary: Etho is just an exceptionally normal guy living his best life. Until he becomes one of the few people to gain superpowers and gets approached with an enticing offer… He's in over his head, isn't he? A Etho-centric atypical take on a superpower au, which devolves into something much bigger.

__

Title: mise-en-scène Rating: listed as explicit for sorting purposes Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/48359143 Fandom: Karmaland SMP Author: CoaxialCable Relationships: Quackity/Rubius, Quackity/Luzu  Characters: Quackity, Luzu, Rubius  Length of the work: 7043 words Genre: Canon-Compliant, Canon-Divergent, Domestic/Slice-of-life, Fluff, Humour, Romance, Slow Burn, Smut Type: Fic Summary: mise-en-scène; everything that appears before the camera and its arrangement. Quackity asks Luzu for a strange favor. Stanger feelings pursue.

--

Title: Ghosting the universe be like: Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/35786014 Fandom: HBG SMP Author: lisatheredfox Relationships: Fulham & Couriway, Fulham & Feinberg  Characters: Lewis Fulham, Couriway, Feinberg Length of the work: 1,696 words Genre: AU, Fluff, Friendship, Humour Type: Fic Summary: 5 times Fulham being (part) ghost Sucks, and 1 time it doesn't, actually

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Title: Cheater, Cheater (Mangoball) Link: https://glittering.world/mangoball/classic Fandom: Video Blogging RPF Author: mangobaii Relationships: Dream/George, Corpse Husband/Wilbur Characters: Dream, George, Corpse Husband, Sapnap, Quackity, Karl, Wilbur, BadBoyHalo Length of the work: 20k-ish? Depends on how you count usernames and such Genre: Crack Fic, Humour, Epistolary, Mangoball Type: Fic Summary: DNF social media epistolary fiction. George gets cheated on by Sapnap with Dream; love blooms, among other things. 

__

Title: Dreams from Within the Cage Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/48686653/chapters/122813377 Fandom: Hermitcraft SMP Author: Fellusion Relationships: Grian/Scar Characters: Scar, Grian, Mumbo Length of the work: 32,824 words Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, AU, Humour, Post-Apocalyptic AU Type: Fic Summary: Scar never thought of himself as much of an escapist, until the apocalypse. In just a few short months, the life he thought he’d be living crashed and burned, leaving him stranded without purpose. Amidst his one-man trek through the desert wastes, he dreamed of worlds far unlike his own. So what happens when those dreams begin to talk back?

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Title: Consequences of the Dead Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30643691/chapters/75602693 Fandom: Dream SMP Author: Lisbis Relationships: Wilbur Soot & Technoblade & TommyInnit & Philza, Wilbur Soot & Quackity Characters: Wilbur Soot, TommyInnit, Technoblade, Philza, Quackity Length of the work: 66,432 words Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, AU, Canon-Divergent, Fix-It, Found Family, Humour, Hurt/Comfort, Superhero/Superpower AU, Dimension Travel AU Type: Fic Summary: Wilbur rolls his eyes. “I’m just patching you up out of some misplaced sense of guilt or nostalgia or whatever; after this, you can try and arrest me again as much as you want-” “Nostalgia?” Tommy interrupts. He squints at the figure, all confusing tangents and cynical jokes, the bird still perched on his head. “What, do I know you or something?” Wilbur’s face darkens. He reaches out a hand, rubbing absently at a long slash going through his trench coat, a tear in the seams of it all. Tommy stills. “No,” the villain finally mutters with a brittle laugh. “No, you don’t.” … Or: Superhero AU in which Wilbur, upon waking up in an alternate universe, accidentally becomes a villain. Maybe not a very good one, though - he remains insanely, outrageously protective over the very heroes (and vigilante) hunting him down.

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Title: THE DIVORCE OF THE CENTURY Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/52635358 Fandom: Hermitcraft SMP Author: glossyblue Relationships: Grian/Goodtimeswithscar Characters: Grian, Goodtimeswithscar, Mumbo Jumbo, BdoubleO100, Zombie Cleo, Rendog and Joe Hills Length of the work: 7,192 words Genre: Canon-Compliant, Humour Type: Fic Summary: The court proceedings of Hermitcraft’s first ever divorce, centering on Grian (Petitioner #1), Scar (Petitioner #2), Mumbo Jumbo (defense lawyer), a cat (also somehow a defense lawyer?), several judges since they keep quitting because of all the nonsense, and your tireless Court Scribe JoeHills.

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Title: the wedding before everything went wrong Link: here Fandom: Hermitcraft SMP Author: terracottakore Relationships: etho/cleo  Characters: cleo, etho  Length of the work: n/e Genre: Angst, Drama, Family, Humour, Slow Burn Type: Art Summary: etho and cleo wedding 

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Title: pov: me when i fucking Get You Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45823945 Fandom: Dream SMP Author: doingthewritethings Relationships: Alexis | Quackity/Wilbur Soot, Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit, Wilbur Soot & Technoblade, Alexis | Quackity & Charlie Dalgleish | Slimecicle Characters: Quackity, Wilbur Soot, Technoblade, Slimecicle, Eret Length of the work: 3,450 words Genre: AU, Crack Fic, Family, Friendship, High School AU, Humour, Modern AU, Chatfic Type: Fic Summary: From: qln@dsmp.org To: csc@dsmp.org what would you do if hypothetically speaking. there was this guy. and he was horrible and awful and his hair was so fluffy like sooo fluffy like imagine putting a mop on his head. like a big old mop. or a dog. but instead of being a wet dog he smelled like cinnamon and was probably really good to pet. ohhhh my god. or, the one where Wilbur thinks they're dating, Quackity thinks they're enemies, and Eret thinks she would really, really, really like to get things done in her student council meetings.

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Title: howling at your door (series) Rating: E-rated Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/3626758 Fandom: Dream SMP Author: ollie_oxen_free Relationships: Quackity/Schlatt, Quackity/Original Character(s) Characters: Quackity, Schlatt, Original Character(s) Length of the work: 25,920 words (incomplete series) Genre: AU, Domestic/Slice-of-life, Fantasy AU, Humour, Modern AU, Smut, Urban Fantasy/Werewolf/Vampire AU Type: Fic Summary: schlackity as werewolves. what more could you want?

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Title: Things that never happened (and more that never will) Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/44145864#main Fandom: Crossover Fandom Author: CoralFlowerDaylight Relationships: Joe Hills & Technoblade Characters: Joe Hills, Technoblade and Technoblade's Chat Length of the work: 3195 words Genre: Canon-Divergent, Crossover, Humour Type: Fic Summary: A fictional VOD transcript for a stream that never happened, ft. Technoblade doing arts and crafts and Joe Hills being Joe Hills

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Title: the misadventures of detective falsewell and grianlock Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29980416/ + blog/art tag Fandom: Hermitcraft SMP Author: sleepyrinas Relationships: Grian & False & Rendog Characters: Grian, False, Rendog Length of the work: 86,922 words Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, AU, Drama, Fluff, Family, Found Family, Humour, Hurt/Comfort, Modern AU, Superhero/Superpower AU, Urban Fantasy/Werewolf/Vampire AU, Mystery Type: Fic Summary: Detectives Falsewell and Grianlock are some of the best in the business, two siblings with a prowess for solving mysteries and any flavor of crime. Of course, not everything goes as simply as they hope. What disasters and troubles await these two detectives in the small town of Hermitville? Only one way to find out!

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Title: A Jackerella Story Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38446057/chapters/96084898 Fandom: Dream SMP Author: wetchickenbreast Relationships: Georgenotfound/Jack Manifold Characters: Jack Manifold, GeorgeNotFound, TommyInnit, Wilbur Soot, BadBoyHalo, Tubbo, Ranboo Length of the work: 6,328 words (incomplete fic) Genre: AU, Crack Fic, Drama, Fantasy AU, Humour Type: Fic Summary: Jackerella's life fucking sucks. Her goddamn parents died (how inconsiderate) and now she is stuck living as an indentured servant for her evil stepfamily. Her younger stepsister bites people (he won't stop no matter how many doctors they bring him to) and his older stepsister is a megabitch (also a homewrecker). His only friends are talking rats, so Jack is pretty much waiting on a miracle to get out of this mess... and that miracle comes in the form of a charming prince, some glass shoes, and a demon from hell (and the demon has MASSIVE tits).

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Title: Tangotek Evil Incorporated Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/48665086/chapters/122758744 Fandom: Hermitcraft SMP Author: onawhimsicot Relationships: TangoTek & Jimmy, TangoTek & Grian, Grian & Jimmy Characters: TangoTek, Jimmy Solidarity, Grian, EthosLab, BdoubleO100  Length of the work: 22,445 words Genre: Action/Adventure, AU, Humour, Superhero/Superpower AU Type: Fic Summary: As the supervillain Dr. Blaze, Tango has a penchant for oddly named "ificators" and stylistic flair. He spends his days trying to take over the city, shaming superheroes for their basic costume designs, and then sending said heroes home with better equipment that actually matches their aesthetic because clearly, if he wants a cool fight scene to happen, he's got to do everything around here himself. For some reason, not many people think he’s evil. On the bright side, the superhero Canary, does and has made it his personal mission to bring down Dr. Blaze! But when he suddenly goes missing, Canary's partner, Parrot, is convinced that Tango is at fault. Seeing as this is not true at all (kidnapping is so gauche), Tango is offended that someone is trying to steal his nemesis right from under his nose. If Tango wants to get his nemesis back, he'll have to work together with Parrot to find and rescue Canary from whatever danger he's got himself into this time. Because, after all, what's a supervillain without a nemesis?

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Title: the mezalean king's epic quartz trading adventure Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45845215 Fandom: Empires SMP Author: de_hautdesert Relationships: N/A Characters: SmallishBeans (Empires SMP Season 1), SmallishBeans (Empires SMP Season 2), Hermes (Empires SMP Season 2) Length of the work: 864 words Genre: AU, Crossover, Humour Type: Fic Summary: prompt: "a s1 and s2 character switches places with themselves and chaos ensues" i dont know how much chaos ended up ensuing but in this fic s1 joel explores stratos!

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Title: Sapnap's Naga Harem Rating: E-rated Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/49846090 Fandom: Dream SMP Author: ollie_oxen_free  Relationships: Sapnap/Philza, Sapnap/Technoblade, Punz/Sapnap, Alexis | Quackity/Sapnap, Dream/Sapnap, Karl Jacobs/Sapnap, Awesamdude/Sapnap, Sapnap/Foolish, Sapnap/Schlatt, Sapnap/Wilbur Soot Characters: Sapnap, Dream XD, Dream, Philza, Technoblade, Quackity, Punz Length of the work: 27,870 words (incomplete fic) Genre: AU, Crack Fic, Fluff, Fantasy AU, Humour, Romance, Smut Type: Fic Summary: Fresh out of school with a Masters in Magical Zoology, Sapnap is hired by a mysterious billionaire he knows only as XD to become one of the main caretakers of a new section of his magical menagerie. He's not sure what he's expecting, but ten fucking naga— rare, dangerous, mysterious— were not on the fucking list. --

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[georgieluz]

Hey

do you write any fan fictions? If so do you think you could give us a little overview of what you’re currently working on? No pressure.

hello! thanks for the ask, i do indeed write fic! ofc i can give you an overview of what i'm working on atm :) i tried to not make this too long as it's just an overview, but feel free to ask me to expand on any of these! i do actually wanna talk more about my fic but i just never know if people wanna read posts about it or just wait until i upload the fic itself. do people want extracts? information about aus? character stuff? idk??? lemme know if you wanna know more, i'm chucking in a read more too bc it got a bit long

a hbo war f1 au. [working title: you're crashing, but you're no wave]. okay, so this is probably the biggest scale thing i'm working on atm. it's multi-chaptered and atm i've been writing it in an almost serialised format, since it's got quite a few narrative strands and numerous characters from both band of brothers and the pacific. i probably would have included some gen kill characters too, but i hadn't watched the show when i was planning and starting to write this, and i don't wanna add too much more into it, so i've stopped myself. i've written a lot for this one and i'm considering posting a few chapters soon. if you wanna know about any character's role in this one feel free to send me another ask because i'd love to talk about them more!! some are drivers (we've got rookies, seasoned drivers, eight-time world champions, the lot!!), some are behind the pit wall in management and engineering roles, some are retired drivers, etc etc. but yeah, it's andy haldane's final season before he plans to retire and let's just say the racing world has decided it's going to be the most chaotic yet! i'll drop some clues about what it entails: snafu and liebgott scrapping their way into weekly dnfs until one of them is kicked from the team. rookie driver eugene sledge having to deal with the consequences. webster somehow making it into his dream team with his dream teammate, yet, his focus remains on beating one person and one person alone. eddie jones is the very successful (and very hot) team principal of andy's rival team. hoosier is there being his usual self. leckie is the f1 journo who somehow knows everything about everyone and boy, the fans love it. we also have the much-loved fan favourite george luz and his race day engineer carwood lipton! retired-world-champion-now-team-principal dick winters and his ex-teammate boyfriend lewis nixon! and i also have a fair few OCs for this au, they aren't written romantically with any of the boys though, but i love them a lot! i might do a post about them later.

next up, is my k-company space pirates au! [working title: one way trigger (step inside the sun)] ok so it probably won't sound very piratey right now, but stick with me, ok? this is actually the one i'm enjoying writing the most right now. i've drafted all the chapters (6-8 depending on whether i cut this one incident or not) and i've written a lot for this too, so i'll probably be posting this one first. very basic synopsis: eddie jones is an expert in data retrieval. eddie jones is also on the run, and a very, very wanted man. maybe the most wanted fugitive in the galaxy. through an unfortunate twist of fate, romus burgin has been dragged along for the ride. andy haldane was a highly respected intergalactic officer, a captain loved by his men and the authorities above them alike. he also risked it all to aid in their escape. now, he's harbouring them both on his grandfather's old and battered ship, picking up a small ragtag team along the way. whilst they're trying to lay low, a distress call, with a code embedded into the message, is sent directly to the ship. one of the team recognises the code and realises it could only have come from one other person in the whole universe, someone asking for his help, someone he could never say no to. it's the worst time, possibly ever, for them to go on a rescue mission but somehow that's what they're doing.

then we have, an early 2000s battle of the bands au. this is mostly band of brothers, but a few people from one company in the pacific does have a role in the narrative, i'll leave that as a surprise though. basically, george luz enters his newly formed garage band into the campus annual battle of the bands competition, certain that they have a decent enough chance at winning. his bandmates disagree. especially after they see who they're up against. this is actually my other favourite to write at the moment! maybe even more so than the k-company space pirates one. it's a chaptered fic, but i'm trying to keep it contained and not super super long. i'm hoping to keep it at around 6-8 chapters max, but i have a bad habit of not sticking to my drafts, so we'll see. but yeah, i'm having a lot of fun with this and feel free to ask me about who the band members are and other roles that other characters will have!

call it fate, call it karma. aka, my 'eddie jones made it home from the war, but andy haldane did not' oneshot. i'm almost finished writing it, i just have a fair bit of editing to finish up.

the ballroom extravaganza. my winnix spy au! the intelligence officer to secret agent pipeline is too real and lew must suffer the consequences, i'm afraid! i've got this drafted and partially written as a two-shot but it's begging to be expanded on, so i've got it waiting in limbo right now, whilst i decide what i'm gonna do. someone make the decision for me please?

i have two male OCs that i've written for liebgott and nixon, if you wanna know more about them then i'm happy to talk about them and introduce them, but i'm not sure how much people would wanna know so i'll wait.

i have another OC based off a friend that i'm almost finished writing a thing for, i just have to change some things to fit the overall series better.

i also have a silly little thing that i wrote up bc i got depressed and hyperfixated on the tv show bondi rescue for the last two weeks resulting in me basically planning a whole bondi rescue lifeguard au for the pacific boys. i have no idea if anyone other than me would be into that so it'll probably stay in my scrivener files lmao

then i just have some vague gen kill things partially planned but they need a lot more work before they see the light of day lmao. but yes, they're all fucking bradnate. apart from the one bradnatemike thing that my brain begged me to consider, which i promptly gave in to right away.

anyway, sorry i know that was supposed to be an overview but it turned into a very long overview. oops.

[lestappenwdc]

Unserious China Race Overview

I few days later than usual but it is here. My thoughts on everything that happened in China this weekend under the cut

1. Red Bull

Ferrari will catch them. They will. Then we will see a REAL Max vs Charles battle. It's gonna happen you just wait.

Perez had another good weekend, however he shouldve caught Lando. He should've gotten past Charles faster (but it's Charles). He was decent. And that's all that RBR need. Because they have Max. And oh Max, my sunshine, my lion the apple of my eye. You are the greatest of all time and soon everyone will admit it.

2. Ferrari

I realize the reason I have not done this overview for 2 days is because I have too much to say about Ferrari this weekend and im just too tired. So i wont say everything. Just a part of it.

First of all, the car... it's getting worse folks. They need to fix the quali issue and now they also need to fix the pace on the hards. This is 2 weekends in a row that they have been hindered by a bad quali. They sacrificed quali pace for race pace but... you can not win with a quali THAT bad. It is ruining their weekends. Hoping the Miami floor will save us I am begging on my knees at this point 😭. And on top of this big quali issue we now have the hards issue that wasn't even there on other circuits. And yes, I get it, it's the fault of the sprint weekend and them not testing the hards therefore not having a setup for them but 😭😭😭😭 I am also a simple girl and I am Scared.

I have decided to not speak about the teammate drama aka Carlos fucking Sainz almost fucking up both of the races this weekend because of his stupidity and just being a bad teammate and human being in general. I think I've said enough and if you follow me you know very well how I feel about that whole situation. 229 more days for those of us counting.

3. McLaren

As much as it pains me to say Lando had an amazing race. I am just here as your resident Lando slanderer to remind you to celebrate his ups but not forget his downs because as good as a race he had he managed to fuck up the sprint so. Fucking. Bad. Like it was so bad I actually couldn't believe someone can fuck up like that.

Lando is a good driver but he is yet to convince me that he is wdc material with flops and inconsistencies like that.

Oscar was invisible, but I still think he did well considering he has never driven here before. I had him down as a DNF this race. Plus he hung on there with damage at the end of the race. Plus he's funny. Unlike some peo- nevermind.

4. Mercedes

I feel like every time we get to Mercedes I say the same thing: they are slow... but they are actually slow, just ask Lewis Hamilton.

How he managed to get from p19 to p9 in that car is insane behavior btw if you even care.

5. Aston Martin

How can I sum up everything that happened to Aston Martin this weekend without this becoming a novel about Fernando Alonso and all his incredible adventures and misfortunes?

But let me do a sum up:

First thing Fernando did this weekend was go on an adventure Dora the explorer style in practice. Second thing he did was put it on the front row for the sprint. Then he hung on with the (very fast) beasts for way too long until he became a victim of the Sainz tornado which not only got him to DNF from the sprint but also a random 10s penalty that was the most unnecessary and unaffecting penalty in the world. Then the race started and this guy overtakes in turn 1 only to Then be put on the worst strategy in the history of ever and was one of the only ones to stop 3 times. That caused him to go through half the grid and overtake Lewis Hamilton 2 turns after he almost lost it in the gravel in the same place that Carlos literally lost it the day before (but why would you want a driver who doesn't crash when you can have a driver who crashes in just the right angle.. is the question all of us should be asking rn). Anyway Fernando Fucking Alonso ladies and gentleman.

And then there's lancey strolley..... my guy..... my man..... I have no words for you and that's saying something.

6. Haas

My pookie bears one more point in the bag huh? Would it have happened if Kevin Magnussen didn't sacrifice himself for the one point again? No. Do I think its actually an amazing strategy to have Kevin commit crimes for one singular Hulk point? Yes I abso fcking lutely do.

Anyway that is MY midfield team and everyone else in the midfield can simply go home.

7. Alpine

Would you look at that, Alpine are getting better? Or are the others just getting worse? I think it may be the second one. Ocon apparently had something different on his car? I saw no difference honestly but idk. Well see.

And as if that all wasnt enough Pierre almost ran over a mechanic and now they have to pay the FIA with taylor Swifts boyfriends money. Really they can not catch a break..

8. Williams

Alex Albons helmet was so funny. Everything else was 🤷‍♀️

9. Sauber

Zhouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ that was so cute I died he is so sweet he deserved that so much. So emotional 😢

The Ferrari engine has started falling apart unfortunately tho 😕 every time I think oh Sauber are getting better they prove me wrong. I had so much hope after the sprint. But that point is coming for them I can feel it. Right after they fix the pit stops.

19. RB

They just..... they..... I mean........ what can you say.

They deserve more as a team. The misogynist does not deserve anything at all but the team deserves better. And Yuki DEFFINITELY did not deserve what happened to him and he DEFFINITELY deserved better. Praying for a good race for them in Miami.