#batnbreakfast

[eddie-redcliffe]

[mylittleredgirl]

I’m rewatching MASH S02E14 “Hot Lips and Empty Arms” and I’m wondering if you enjoy the drunk Major Houlihan episode as much as I do. 😄

She’s adorable in this one.

Trapper and Hawkeye helping to sober her up.

Henry saying “It’s nice having the children all together again.” to Radar while watching them all squabble at the end.

Top episode, much fun!

omg how did i miss this ask. i DO enjoy that episode as much as you do, "it's nice having the children all together again" lives in my head and my vocabulary rent-free.

[fortytworedvines]

Today, as @batnbreakfast is putting up her decorations, I feel it is only proper to remind everybody of her fun adventure buying christmas lights a few years ago, which I immortalised in a berena fic.

Please enjoy. Happy Christmas bat ;)

This is the way she kissed the girl: on christmas day

[tebarambles]

I was tagged by @batnbreakfast - thanks, my friend ☺️

Currently listening to:

This is my current "on repeat" playlist. No, I'm not going to explain this.

Currently reading: 'Vielleicht habe ich dich nur erfunden' by Tatjana Scheel (I only started last night so I can't say anything good or bad about it yet)

Currently watching: Apart from my never-ending Ted Lasso rewatch loop? YouTube videos about all kinds of crafts (mostly crochet, pottery and woodworking). I don't really have the mental capacity to get involved with new TV shows at the moment.

Currently obsessing over: I'm still very much down the perfume rabbit hole, I'm afraid. Annoyingly expensive special interest. But it gave me several ideas for possible Berena fics that I may or may not write (maybe, if I ever find the time and energy. I'm not making promises though). No new fandoms (yet).

Tagging: @elphiessolsikke @idealism-sits-in-prison @doctorjameswatson and whoever might want to join. (no pressure to the ones I tagged)

[shippingsincebeforeyouwereborn]

Did we know Jemma Redgrave would be in this production?

[dduane]

Chicken in trousers (drawn in 1783). Via @CuriosMuseum over at the Ex Bird Place.

ETA: many thanks to @batnbreakfast in the notes for the link to the fabulous original page!

[hometoursandotherstuff]

Thanks to Batnbreakfast for sending these death stairs that are the entrance to the kitchen, storage room, and loo at a local corner coffee shop. The workers have to climb up and down several times a day. (There is no dumb waiter- Batnbreakfast said that they go up and down carrying or handing things to one another.)

[dead-loch]

@batnbreakfast

[ktlsyrtis]

I've finally slept off enough of the jet lag to piece together some semi-coherent thoughts about last weekend.

First and foremost, it was so wonderful to get to see and talk to so many internet pals in person. Sharing this whirlwind experience with @seahorsepencils, @batnbreakfast, @starfleetwitch, @akaanonymouth, @iordio, @elphiessolsikke, and @ariverandasong is something I'm going to treasure always

(the rest is under the cut because this got long 😅)

Octopolis:

I have never been in a theater as small as the Hampstead. It is literally no bigger than my living room, with only two rows of seats around three sides. So when I tell you that Jemma was RIGHT THERE you can get a sense of what I mean lol.

Truly the wildest part was the moment of this person who you've seen on screen so many times suddenly being a real human person in front of you. Like I think my brain broke for the first few minutes of the show 😅. From that point forward it was just sitting back and taking in how engaging, funny and gorgeous she is in person. There were a few lines and moments in that show which will live rent free in my head forever. Especially what a huge dork of a dancer she is 😂

Afterwards the group of us waited in the cafe to say hello. When she came upstairs she excused herself for a bit because her brother and his family were there to see the show that night, which was very sweet, and then she came over to talk to us on her way out.

I know it sounds trite, but she really is just the sweetest, loveliest person. She took the time to talk to everyone and was so kind and engaged. I was able to give her the scarf I made for her. When she found out I knit it she was like "Really? Why would you do that for me??" 😂

The highlight of the evening came courteous of @seahorsepencils, who had seen the show the night before and told Jemma that a group of Berena fans was coming the next day.

Some actors might've been like 'oh god' and run for the back door. Others might make a big show about dressing up for their public. Not Jemma, oh no.

Meeting her was so overwhelming that I didn't notice at first. But while she was talking to someone else it suddenly clicked that she was wearing Bernie's pink coat! (I think I almost ripped @starfleetwitch's arm off when I realized lol) Slowly, the rest of what she was wearing sunk in:

Pink coat? Check. Black skinny jeans? Check. Sweater over a button down? Check. Chelsea boots? Check.

That's right friends. Jemma Redgrave, glorious dork that she is, FUCKING COSPLAYED BERNIE WOLFE FOR US!!!!!!

Honestly my biggest regret of the whole trip was that in the whirlwind of everything we didn't take a picture with her. Fortunately some other fan was there that night and got some photographic proof:

(yes, she is holding the scarf I made; no, I will not be able to be normal about it lol) (also when we told her we were going to Catherine's show the next day she said to "give her my love" 😍)

Great Expectations:

Another day, another incredible UK theater. The Royal Exchange is a gorgeous venue; much larger than Hampstead, but still very intimate. We were able to get seats in the front row banquettes for the matinee, which was an amazing experience.

Catherine on stage is...the only thing I can think of is a force of nature. Her sheer presence made it seem like she was a foot taller than the rest of the cast and she owned the stage every time she was on it. On top of that, she somehow she managed to make racist, decrepit Miss Havisham really hot??? Which is a contradiction my brain still hasn't been able to fully reconcile lol

Because of all the work that goes into her makeup she understandably didn't stage door after the matinee. Fortunately some of us also had plans to go to the evening show.

This time around my seat turned out to be on the aisle where she made all of her entrances and exits, which meant she was literally inches away from me every. single. time. (shoutout again to @starfleetwitch who was sitting directly across the aisle and therefore on the receiving end of many a gay-panicked stare on my part 😅)

It was a rainy day in Manchester and the official stage door is outside with no overhang, so we took a chance and hung around in the cafe/bar area after the show. We figured that Catherine going to the bar was as likely as the sun rising in the east lol

Fortunately the chance paid off - she came out to the cafe to have drinks with a couple of her costars and was kind enough to come talk to us (after asking if we could talk in the bar so she could get a glass of wine of course 😂)

I have to tell you friends, I have very little recollection of what I said from this point forward lol. Truly talking to her was like having some kind of out of body experience. There were a couple of specific moments that are burned in my memory

I gave her the shawl I made for her, and she immediately flung it around her neck and wore it for the rest of the night *cue internal screaming and flailing*

When we told her we'd seen both shows that day, her response was "Oh god why?? It's bad enough having to be in it twice"

I don't know if she like bathes in the blood of children or something, but her skin is FLAWLESS. Literally she looks 10 years younger in person with no makeup on, its insane. Also her eyes are just as sparkly as you think they are, and when she makes eye contact it is A LOT

She asked if we all wanted to take a picture and proceeded to put her arm around me ☠️☠️☠️

She spent a good amount of time talking to us and was just as lovely, funny, and ridiculous as I could've hoped lol. In particular she mentioned how happy it makes her that Berena has taken on such a life beyond Holby and that we've all made such wonderful friends because of it.

After we let her go to talk to her cast mates, I somehow poured myself into a seat in the bar and someone got me a much needed gin as we all tried to unpack what had just happened. At some point she came back into the bar and went out of her way to come over and talk to us again (she basically appeared right next to me, and when I tell you the sheer relief that it was in the 30 seconds I wasn't spouting my usual girl crush bullshit about her 😅)

...

The rest of the trip was sub-optimal, bordering on karmic retribution lol. The tire on our rental car blew out on the M1 on our way back to London, and what should have been a 4 hour drive came out closer to 9, when all was said and done. At that point there was only time to eat, sleep, and catch the plane home

I may not have had as much time to see everyone and to spend in London as I had hoped, but I have zero regrets about the trip. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience and I'm so, so glad I went

And the most important life lesson:

[lord-of-killer-indecencies]

@batnbreakfast

If someone wrenched open a sharks jaws with the jaws of life? Wouldn't....it need medical treatment more than a ride to the ocean?

[lilolilyr]

✨ao3 wrapped 2023✨

Haven't seen this tagging meme around at all yet this year, so I thought I'd start it myself!

2022

Works published: 74, very similar to last year! a bit less but the year also isn’t over yet :D edit: by the time I’m getting around to post this, it’s on 86! Yay!

Wordcount: 118254 I’m happy I made it past 100k! That was my tentative goal and I didn’t think I’d make it with how slow it came along for most of the year, but with flufftober and the events I did manage :D

Kudos: 3184

Hits: 31833

Bookmarks: 267

Subscriptions: 114 and I’m at 157 user subscriptions right now? Who follows my multifandom mess of an Ao3, doesn’t that completely clogg up your email inbox? Maybe I’m just biased bc I rarely check my fandomy email and when I do it’s always a mess xD but I think tag lists on tumblr are so much more useful

Most popular by kudos: Gave myself a Fright, a Mirandy (DWP) fic with 301 kudos

Most hits: same fic, 2404 hits

Longest: lonely hearts on remote roads with 10811 words - Milippa road trip AU my beloved!

Shortest: I wrote nine drabbles (100 word ficlets) this year, they’re the shortest ones :)

Most Comments: my podfic of the Mirandy longfic Jigsaw has 14 comment threads - damn, that’s a year with few comments! In past years the whole top 5 commented on fics had more than that. Oh well!

Fics that made me cry: Grief, a fanfic where I project my own feelings about a dead pet onto Myka, and recording the Jigsaw podfic also made me really emotional a lot

Fics that made me smile: so manyy! For example the Berena fic Happiness surrounded by Snow

gifts:

- the first chapter of ‘Time Dilates’ by @barbarawar as my Bering and Wells gift exchange gift back in February, thanks!

- ‘Blame it on Circumstance’, a wonderful sequel to the fluffy fic @squishmittenficfan made me for the Berena gift exchange in 2022, and another sequel Blame it on Love posted just a few days ago I haven’t actually gotten around to read yet but am already very excited for!

- ‘never borrow Helena’s clothes’, a fic for the Bering and Wells advent by @jesstrel that I have beta read for them :)

I have gifted some fics as well this year, I tend to gift people fics when they helped me with it by beta reading or cheering me on, or when I was writing to someone’s prompt! I know I adore getting gift works on Ao3 and I love to share that happiness :)

collaborations:

Halloween fic and art collab with @thewalkingmeepa, that was fun!

Drunken Considerations, a Bering and Wells collab fic with @lavendelhummel :D first time I made a collab while actually in the same room with the other person xD

Both collaborations and part of an event were the fic & podfic works Where No Flan Has Gone Before (Star Trek humor) with @bookgirlfan and Which Mere Modernity Cannot (modern Dracula) with @artax-risen, and the Bering and Wells Advent Calendar with @lavendelhummel @purlturtle @akittennameddaisy @viharistenno @jesstrel @sallysetonbw @violetren @thiakerrigan @tryingthisfangirlthing that is still ongoing! finished now, I take too long for tagging memes xdxD

events:

- Flufftober (I managed to make something for every single day of the month, yay!)

- Berena advent

2022 version

Tagging, if you want to do it, everyone already tagged above as well as @die-schwanenkoenigin @amysnotdeadyet @lesbianlotties @guardianrock @73chn1c0l0rr3v3l @danisnotmyname @batnbreakfast @sapphicscholar @tabsolanya @sterenheart @wibblywobblyida @forestcircle @ongreenergrasses and everyone else who sees this!

For ease of copying: Works published: Wordcount: Kudos: Hits: Bookmarks: Subscriptions: Most popular by kudos: Most hits: Longest: Shortest: Most Comments: Fics that made me cry: Fics that made me smile: gifts: collaborations: events:

sapphicscholar purlturtle die-schwanenkoenigin amysnotdeadyet squishmittenficfan viharistenno lesbianlotties bookgirlfan

[seahorsepencils]

london/manchester adventures: part 1

Vague spoilers below for anyone who hasn't seen Octopolis.

A few weeks ago I went to see Octopolis and Great Expectations with the Berena group of @batnbreakfast @ktlsyrtis @elphiessolsikke @iordio @starfleetwitch @ariverandasong and @akaanonymouth.

I have a lot of feelings/thoughts! For the sake of brevity I'm going to try to keep the focus narrow.

octopolis

Anyone who's not able to see the production, I highly recommend buying a copy of the script online if you can. It's very beautiful and strange, and I think it's a satisfying read if you want to get a sense of some of the funnier and more vulnerable moments, and imagine Jemma in those moments.

I saw the play three times in total (twice on Thursday and once on Friday night), and each performance was very different. Because the show is a two-hander and both actors do such an amazing job listening to each other and taking in each other's (and the audience's) energy, there's a lot of variable space for the mood/vibes to shift between performances.

The Thursday matinee got lots of laughs in the first half and then felt really sad at the end. The evening show got almost no laughs at the beginning and felt sort of tense? In a way that I don't think was intentional, but made for an interesting experience watching it. Also the director, Ed Madden, was at that performance - my eyes kept flicking over toward his area of the audience to try to gauge how he was reacting.

Friday was definitely my favorite performance of the three. Ewan Miller's comic timing is pretty great in general, but in this production it was perfect - and everything he said felt very honest and vulnerable, not like a punchline. And the chemistry between both actors was definitely at its best in this version. I will say that I found the chemistry to be a bit unsatisfying in general - they have a lot of fun together, but I never quite believed that either one had fallen for the other, so it didn't quite click for me as a romantic chemistry. But thinking of the two as curious and vulnerable friends and intellectual partners, I definitely found that chemistry to be most palpable in the Friday show.

Additionally, Jemma hit a different level of anger in the Friday show, which I loved. I think the ending of the play really depends on the sense that her character feels incredibly betrayed, and on Friday, I could really feel the depth of that betrayal in her reaction to it.

And if I'm not misremembering, the final dance between the characters was a little different in that version - not the choreography itself, but how they initiated physical contact at the start of it. It had a bit more of a loving/vulnerable quality, which was very sweet and sad.

Oh, also: Jemma snort laughed the most times in the Friday performance. Very important data.

My favorite difference between the three was the bows at the end of the Friday night performance - Jemma and Ewan did a little cute shoulder bump during each bow, like they were happy about how well it went and what they'd created together this time around.

It was really lovely being able to see the show with friends the third time around, and to spend time talking about bits of the production that broke our brains, and parts where her intonation was similar to a specific Bernie moment, etc. It was also great being able to chat with Jemma after the performance - I'm not good at writing about that sort of thing so I'm going to refrain, but @ktlsyrtis's post covers it pretty nicely.

[fortytworedvines]

Ao3 fic writers questions. I was tagged by @batnbreakfast and @slightlyintimidating , thank you both!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

109

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

409, 456

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Recent fics are Berena (holby City) and all creatures great and small (2020 version).

Previous fandoms include Ted lasso, doctor who, the durrells and cabin pressure.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Cherry cake (Ted lasso, Ted x trent)

But that's what happens (doctor who, thasmin)

I promise I will do my best (to be true to myself) (holby City, berena)

Observations of trent crimm (the independent) (Ted lasso, Ted x Rebecca)

Rocket ships and shooting stars (Ted lasso, Ted x trent).

These definitely show which the biggest fandom is, rather than my best work. Who would have thought Ted x trent would blow up like it did!

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes, though sometimes very late. I appreciate the comments I get so I want to show that!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

In her dreams (holby City, berena) which when I wrote it was canon compliant with bernie being dead and then serena died at the end of the fic.

I don't like angst and will almost always write it with a happy ending if I do have to write it.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Most of my other fics to be honest. The guy (or girl) gets the guy (or girl) and they live happily ever after.

8. Do you get hate on fic?

Only once and it was about an actor, not the fic.

9. Do you write smut?

When the mood takes me 😅

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I've written, um, maybe 3 crossovers? None of them are particularly crazy.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of...

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Someone once asked to translate a thasmin one. I don't know if they ever did though.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Once, with the lovely and mysterious @slightlyintimidating . It was great fun! Definitely recommend

14. What's your all time favourite ship?

Haha... ha. Nope, can't answer that! I love all my ships.

15. What's a wip you want to finish but probably won't?

Happy to say that all my published fic is complete. At the moment, I'd just like to be in the mood to write anything at all really.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I'm pretty good at keeping people in character.

I think my dialogue is OK most of the time?

17. What are your writing weaknesses

Description. Urgh. Just imagine something in your head and pretend I described it please.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I don't think it works. If you're fluent and can write something that's not a mess, your audience might not be fluent to understand it. And if you're not then just... no. Write it in whatever language your fic is in and say its that other language.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter. Didn't publish it as I didn't even realise fanfic was a thing back then.

20. Favourite fic you've written?

Might be recency bias, but Home Front (acgas, Siegfried x audrey). I reread it recently and loved it. It has a good plot, the characters are solid, the OCs are good, the setting is good, the animals are lovely.

I'm doing this on my phone and I can't rewrite the questions out. Sorry. If you would like to answer these, consider yourself tagged!

[tebarambles]

Thanks for the tag @batnbreakfast ☺️

Last song: Monster - The Automatic

Favourite colour: not to be a copycat, but if I have to pick just one it's also teal 😄 (and of course *coughs* dark heather charcoal 😉)

Currently watching: Taskmaster Series 17, though I'm not as hyped yet as I usually am for a new series. I also started rewatching Derry Girls yesterday. And I have been watching lots of documentaries on tattooing recently.

Savoury/sweet/spicy: preferably a combination of all of these! Right now I'm craving some fresh mango with lime juice, sea salt and chili powder (I also love chocolate and crisps and so on but this is what I really want right now and the shop across the street didn't have mangoes 😭)

Relationship status: Nope.

Current obsession: Tattoos, evidently - I'm already so excited for my next one!! How rude that I still have to wait until August (jk it's my own fault, I could have picked an earlier date). My obsession with perfume has somehow not really subsided yet either (I really should pick less expensive special interests)

Last thing you googled: the opening hours of the closest DHL Paketshop because I had to pick up a parcel from there.

Tagging @elphiessolsikke, @daisydoctor13 and everyone who wants to join :)

[daisydoctor13]

Jumping on @batnbreakfast 's bandwagon with some views and hikes - the weather was exceptional for the first two, but I think I just spent the day inside a cloud up a mountain today

[veganpepsibaby]

Something for all the lovely folk who were part of @batnbreakfast Zoom on Saturday..., I loved the Surrealism of the conversations!😉 And Bat is a wonderful host 😻