#maybe i need recs this time

[obelians]

i dont use tumblr anymore and this blog is dead af so idk who’ll even see this but: i still read a handful of manhwas and have dropped so many, but honestly i feel like they don’t make it as good as they used to 😔 like the villainess isekai types just don’t hit the same nowadays smh

[fearandhatred]

to rome: a play by fearandhatred

(5k words, 1/1 chapters)

While trying to tempt Caligula, Crowley makes a discovery that renders all his efforts for naught. But then it turns out that Aziraphale is here too, so maybe his trip to Rome isn't wasted after all.

***highly recommended to read on a phone because of the Multiplicity Of Line Breaks that just look very weird on a laptop unless your font size is huge

-----

i've always loved the idea of crowley falling in love with aziraphale in rome. in some ways it really is my roman empire so i figured i might as well make it happen! featuring many shenanigans and an annoying emperor :)

any and all support is greatly appreciated <3

anyway it all started with a dream:

so this is for @eybefioro @captainblou @crowleys-bentley-and-plants who challenged me to write a fic with no angst and also, coincidentally, for that one commenter who asked me on the same day if i would consider writing something happy for once. against all odds and with much difficulty, i have done it. love u guys sm <333

[avocado62524]

[braisedhoney]

"He’s frozen stiff, threatening claws now hovering down to the side—his eyes look huge in the darkness, that faint white glow giving just the slightest of his expression away. 

He still doesn’t strike."

- all because of you (i do right) by puppyblue on ao3, Chapter 1. @puppyblueao3 here on tumblr i think!

(does this count as a fic rec or fanart. both, probably. rambles under the cut.)

SO uh—i'm really picky about fanfiction. like. really really picky.

i dunno why exactly, but i kinda have a hard time reading them right away bc a) i'm not really a shipper and that's most fanfiction i've seen and b) i like when i can really imagine the characters saying and doing whatever it is they're doing.

y'know the whole "he would not fucking say that" meme? lmao that's me, but with fanfics and only to myself. (i know everyone has their niche and i'm not here to police anybody's fun, just curate my own.)

anyway all that to say that i really, really liked this one. a lot. it's canon divergent off of into the spiderverse, and if you can believe it the comic is literally not a spoiler bc it's in the summary of the fic. but if you liked uncle aaron or even just are a sucker for redemption (? ish?) arcs, i think you'd like it! with all the angst and chaos from atsv it's a nice change of pace.

[dont-offend-the-bees]

God I fucking miss my days of Dirk Gently fandom

[batsplat]

watched donington 2005 bc of your rec and loved it! do you have any more recs for interesting (and/or messy) wet races?

sure do! we're going to take a broad definition of 'wet' race here... there's also been some major rule changes this century, like bike swaps didn't used to be a thing - plus I'm not particularly inclined to check how each race was actually categorised. so for our purposes here, any race where I remember the track being wet playing a significant role counts

in honour of being incredibly inconsistent with the asterisk system, this time I've added * or ** by how much of a definite recommend it is as a wet race (also to be complete I'll include donington '05)

donington 2000*: valentino's first premier class win and a very valentino way to do it. absolute horror show of a start that drops him to thirteenth on lap one, and he picks his way through from there on the damp track. lovely little comeback ride as they wobble around - crucially at a time when vale did not have a good reputation as a wet weather racer. fun 3-way fight for the win

suzuka 2002**: the first ever motogp race in nasty nasty conditions, and features an unexpected starring performance from japanese wild card rider akira ryo who was very familiar with the track and where all the puddles were. valentino sticks behind him for much of this race, watching and learning. showcases valentino's approach rather nicely

le mans 2003: this one isn't wet for most of the race, and when it starts raining the race is interrupted. that being said, the sete/valentino duel in slippery conditions after the race resumes is fun and fiddly enough to justify its inclusion. banger of a last lap

mugello 2004: same as above - interrupted a few laps before the end for rain. the conditions are very uncertain when they resume, and the last few laps involves a multi-rider scrap between riders on slicks on a track that is very much not dry. fantastic race

shanghai 2005: conditions proper nasty start to finish, crazy amounts of spray. vale does the thing where he gives himself a bit of work to do and is 6th at some point during the first lap, though he's soon up to 2nd and goes about hunting down kenny roberts jr. in the end he disappears out front, so it's up to everyone else to make it exciting (mostly by struggling to stay on track)

donington 2005**: this one's a go-to pick for a reason. horrendous conditions, high attrition rate, lairy saves, a tense fight for the lead before valentino eventually feels comfortable enough to pull a painful margin on the field. classic race all round

phillip island 2006*: first ever bike swap race! late in the season so it's all very dramatic with the title fight - you've still got several different contenders at this stage with constantly changing fortunes. drama up and down the field until the very very end

donington 2007**: proper wet race and exactly what you want from these things, with the run order constantly chopping and changing. the winning rider spends a lot of time in a lot of different positions, great ride to fight his way through

sachsenring 2008: dani's leading the championship, vale crashed the last time out at assen before recovering to 11th, casey's won the last two races... all three of them have very different races in the full wet conditions. incidentally the last race before laguna

indy 2008*: proper fun scrap in appalling conditions! the usual suspects and also some more unusual suspects (that year anyway) scrapping it out at the sharp end of the race - and they really are going for it given the conditions. once stopped, there isn't a restart, though there's still that fun bit where casey joins valentino to (presumably) tell ezpeleta that they are not going back out there

le mans 2009*: my pitch for this one is that it has a claim to being the most embarrassing race of valentino's career. everything that could possibly go wrong did go wrong. I laugh every time I think about this race, but I suppose you have to admire his perseverance

mugello 2009*: yeah, this one's fun! bike swap race right after le mans so Certain Riders are playing it a bit safe... some great tussling and mixing it up and odd run orders in this one, just what you're looking for. incidentally the last race before catalunya

donington 2009*: another one for people who sometimes want to watch some very talented athletes embarrass themselves. casey has the mystery illness excuse for making a ridiculous tyre choice, but the others? lemme not speak. great chaotic shenanigans

sepang 2009: valentino's first matchpoint race, but he has a horrendous first lap (after qualifying well for once) that makes it look like the championship might not be quite done yet. great race out front from casey, though a lot of this one is about tracking vale and jorge's progress through the field. good fun!

le mans 2011*: plenty of talking points post-race, with some riders perhaps not balancing risk/reward quite right on the slippery track. a fierce fight for the final two podium spots behind casey

silverstone 2011*: the signature casey wet weather performance, and it's just too good from him to be exciting out front. still, the conditions are nasty enough there's plenty of peril behind - which two riders in particular discover while attempting to take on dovi

valencia 2011*: unpleasant first corner pile-up, but it's a nice little race from there in tricky conditions that get worse at the end. an extended dovi/dani duel that has real stakes for championship standings and pride. also you get a really dramatic ending out front, kinda out of nowhere? worth sticking with this one

le mans 2012*: jorge's in that stage of his career where he's a decent wet weather racer, and he very much disappears out front as battle rages behind. valentino fights with casey, fights with dovi/cal, fights with casey again... the last vale/casey duel featuring a last lap overtake

assen 2014: wet to dry bike swap, with more rain threatening. it features the first real dovi/marc scrap (doesn't last long, but they have a 2nd go at it as marc hunts dovi down). plus there's also an impressive comeback ride from vale after a poor tyre choice

aragon 2014: rather a nasty valentino crash close to the start - but once you're through that, you're in for quite a silly one. let's just say the dominant rider that year does not have a particularly dignified day in the office. dry to wet bike swap race, which some perhaps grasped a little too late

silverstone 2015**: first race in which valentino lost the championship lead, but this is the bounce back race in the soaking wet. marc puts a lot of pressure on valentino here, it's 2015, what more do you want? late pressure from other riders too, a signature valentino wet weather ride

misano 2015*: big twists, big turns, massive title fight implications. a flag-to-flag race where both title contenders perhaps don't get it quite right... a lot of chaos where bike swap timing makes all the difference. a truly excellent performance from the winner

sachsenring 2016: no prizes for guessing who won this one, but way more jeopardy than the average visit to the circuit. marc just got these flag-to-flags bang on so often, and it's fun watching him secure what at one stage looked like rather an unlikely victory

brno 2016**: if you can, go into this one without being spoiler-ed, because I promise you that you will not be able to guess the podium combination after the first few laps. a lot of this race ends up being about tyre choice. a slow burn but a goody

misano 2017**: in that stretch of 2017 where every race is a Big Title Fight Race, which makes it so fun 2017 had so many of those in the wet. a fun race throughout, but the last lap is particularly daring and memorable. a signature marc performance

motegi 2017**: a race that gradually builds to a dovi/marc duel - and the additional jeopardy added by the conditions makes it something special. one hell of a last lap

sepang 2017**: first match point race, just to add a little extra drama to proceedings. a lot of tense wobbling about as dovi attempts to navigate his way back to the lead of the race - including past his rather stubborn teammate. excellent performance under high pressure from dovi

valencia 2018*: the conditions get so poor you do get several crashes that just make for unpleasant viewing... when they finally red flag it, the field is severely depleted, then it's broadly more of the same. defo a good race if 'chaos' is what you're looking for

le mans 2020*: entire race on wet track. I don't remember the 1st half of this being all that exciting, but once it gets going it's just SUCH dumb chaos, in a title fight that's all about dumb chaos

austria 2021**: a race that will be remembered more than anything because of the crazy way in which it was won. the whole race is fun, but the last few laps are kinda unforgettable

motegi 2023*: quite fun to have a flag-to-flag this late in the championship fight! the title contenders feature heavily in this one and there's enough shake-ups in the order to keep things interesting. psa: this race doesn't get restarted. pretty short

honourable mentions: valencia 2001, estoril 2002, jerez 2004, estoril 2005, le mans 2007, assen 2011, phillip island 2011, assen 2016, le mans 2021, argentina 2023

[xiaoluclair]

sorry to bother but i am in desperate need of lestappen fanfic recommendations if you have any 🥹🫶🏻

hello my sweet darling, i s'pose i may indeed accept your humble apology 💞✨💗. and in return:

[T] sweet, funny, established relationship, helmut marko get in a bin agenda if that's ur thing: Red Bull Burgers

[T] hilarious, flowershop!charles and streamer!max: so i guess i'll be sticking with you

[T] gorgeous, heartbreaking and heartmaking, non-linear, imagine word vomit but like truly exquisite: love like a fist

[M] depth, true rumination, metaphors and similes to knock you out, do not read this while half asleep (speaks from experience), or maybe do, the english language is but sweet author's measly slave: CUL-DE-SAC

[T] limited lestappen (but such good build for their potential), the most charming office au ever, on-the-fucking-floor-funny lmao lmfao rofl: itch

[E] mouth watering dynamics, basically pure lestappen, denial is not just a river in egypt, and now with a Part 2: (i) monaco malaise // (ii) azerbaijan abnegation

[zmediaoutlet]

Hello friend! Question for you (because I believe you have top tier taste). Do you have any fave late season or established relationship Sam/Dean fics? I notice that sooo many fics are centered around them getting together and "weecest", but sometimes I'm in the mood for a nice cut to the chase/"we both know whats goin on here" kind of story! Thank you :)

hello, grey circley friend! I am pleased that you like my taste, we're definitely in agreement there, and also OH MY GOD I love later-seasons and established relationship SO MUCH, they are my FAVORITE and it makes me turn into a very sad little emoji face whenever those polls go by and everyone's always like, oh, s1-3 first time is the best. And I'm just like oh :( not for me :( why can't people like the things i like :(

But that's why we just gotta be out here writing for ourselves, allegedly, although tbh it would be nice if other people liked it too, lol. (Seriously was considering a poll of like 'hey, which wip would you guys actually want to read'.)

If this isn't too terribly forward, I'm gonna do this -- because apparently I've written... 72 established relationship wincest fics, and like. idk, I think they're okay. At least some of those are later seasons.

But now not being super tacky, let me see if I can give you... three by other people that I really like --

Got No Direction by mistyzeo -- I crabsolutely ADORE this one, which is truly a quick cut-to-the-chase with no messing around and no angst, just two people who like each other and like fucking each other having a good ol' time. It isn't really set in a particular era but for some reason it reads very s7ish to me? Maybe because of when I first read it, even though it was clearly published earlier. Love it, adore it, you read it and adore it too.

what lies underneath by @rivkat -- sorta schmoopy shaving/praise kink but really it's about how Sam loves Dean So Much and I'm always here for that as a plot. Also a sink nearly gets fucked off the wall, which can only be a good thing. Good comfort food on a bad day.

Loser by @winchestersinthedrift -- Becky's the all time champ of writing bodies as bodies and getting in and out with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of oomph. Her Sam is probably the sexiest Sam who's ever been written and he just thinks that Dean's delightful, and you know what, same. This is Bunker era in a vague and happy space.

-- and the reason it's only three, I'm sorry, is that the server troubles are making this Difficult, lol. But surely that's enough to be going on with. To other people: heyyyy, isn't it so funnnn when you've got people who've gotten past all the kissy worry and now the worry is about other stuffffff, heyyyyyyyyy

(that's my attempt at getting people to tag more stuff Established, anon. let's see if it works.)

[rapha-reads]

Am I supposed to take advantage of the night to keep working on my thesis, of which I've barely completed 1/9th (discounting research, abstract, introduction, structure and bibliography)? Yes. Am I instead reading my second novel of the day? Yes. Should I go to bed instead because it's 4am? Yes.

Earlier today I read This is How You Lose the Time War, that I had been meaning to check ever since it was published, and it was gorgeous. Really beautiful, the letters, the descriptions of the multiple universes, times and planets visited, the ways Red and Blue work, the emotions... Pure joy.

Right now I'm reading The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, and it is fascinating. I love a good scifi book, especially a scifi book that really takes into consideration the vastness of space and how varied other species and planets could be. Also punching holes through subspace sounds like a pure adrenaline trip and I'm deeply interested and captivated.

Anyway. Thesis is not progressing, deadline is getting closer. I should stop reading and start writing at some point. Meh. Stress levels are still not optimal. Stars aren't aligned. Need more adrenaline.

[airenyah]

this might be a very austrian thing for me to say but uh. not pran nearly dying on a strip of path that actually looks fairly flat

[sagecodex]

My Favorite Forum Scripts

The unofficial part two of My Favorite Skin-Building Scripts, this is a collection of scripts that I wish more forums used! Not quite essential for building your forum, but definitely nice to have from an end user perspective. Like the post draft saver, post bookmarks, ctrl+b/i/u, etc.

These are some of my favorites from the resource forums jCodes and Sourced, both of which have a lot more codes available than the ones I pulled out as my favorites. So go check those resource forums out!

Add # of Alerts to Board Title by Cory If you have more than 0 alerts, it adds that number to the browser tab title. Like how Tumblr has the number of new posts on your dash in the title! Great for pressuring me into replies when my ADHD clicks over to Pinterest. Ctrl+B/I/U by Cory  When you hit CTRL+B/I/U it adds the appropriate BBcode. This is on John’s list to make a default feature, but until then this script is incredibly handy and if I ever have to type [b] again I’ll probably kill something.

Fast Reply BBcodes by Kon Adds BBcodes to the fast reply box! This includes custom BBcodes.

Floating Login by Skyon Archer Creates a popup login screen out of the login link. Great if you don’t want to design your own modal.

Form Submission Script by Black Useful for claims (if you’re not using auto-claims) or other forum functions, where you can customize a form for users to fill out. The form will then post as a reply to the topic it’s posted in.

Membergroup Counter by Essi Pulls the number of accounts in a member group from the member list. Great for quick referencing in your board stats. If knowing ratios is your thing.

Post bookmarks by Cory  Similar to tracked topics, but this creates a new bookmarks page, allowing you to add categories and notes about specific bookmarks you make! This is incredibly genius and I WISH more sites would use this!! Helps me save those spicy posts to read again later~

Post Drafts by Cory Saves a copy of the post you’re writing in local storage every 30 seconds. This has saved my ass countless times because my browsers (and their 400 tabs) like to crash. There’s also a manual save version if you don’t like the auto-save.

Post Tags by Cory Lets you add tags to posts so you can easily search the whole forum for posts with the same tags. There’s another version for topic tags, too! Great for tagging ships, tropes, etc. especially on sandbox sites! Note: all tag keywords should be unique and longer than 3 characters.

Recent Topics Anywhere by Essi Adds your recent topics list.........anywhere. lol. Love it for maximum snooping into everyone’s threads, which I do often.

Tagging Username List by Cory When you start typing out a tag with the @ symbol in posts, a list of usernames that start with those characters pops up. Clicking one of them autocompletes the tag. Great for when you forget how to spell every character’s name lol.

User-selectable Avatars by Cory Useful for sandboxes! It allows users to add a selection of custom avatars into a profile field, and then select the one they want to use from a dropdown menu in the posting page.

Remember, adding scripts and plugins can cause your website load time to slow down, especially on older machines or in places with slower internet. So please be mindful about your member base and what you consider most important to your forum experience.

Please note: Be sure to provide credit to the original coders when using anything you have not created yourself. If you’re using these codes in any commissions, please be sure to read the original coders’ terms of service and/or reach out to them before selling their work with your own. And if you like what they’re doing, toss them a few bucks in their tip jars!

[musical-chick-13]

Once again: the so-called "General Fandom History," in terms of which things get held up as Iconic™ or Well-Done™ or Worth Analyzing™ has disproportionately focused on (cis, abled) white men. Some of us would like to not have everything be focused on this one demographic and would, in fact, love to not constantly hear--implicitly or explicitly--how stories about people like us are inherently less interesting or less worthy of telling.

"Remember your history," WE KNOW THE HISTORY. AND WE WANT TO MOVE ON.

[graff-aganda]

being weird and obsessive about music is all fun and games until you're the only one being weird and obsessive about the music in question

[e77y]

If anyone has book recommendations, pls lmk! I would love a series, maybe sci-fi or fantasy, with well-written characters and character dynamics/relationships :3 That is all I ask

I have an old list of recs from some of y’all mutuals (thank youuu <3) that I do still plan on reading, but I can’t find anything in my local libraries or bookstores 😭 I guess I could read online or go to a chain bookstore, buuuuut I really want to own a physical book that’s not too expensive. Maybe too much to ask… 😅

[catboydan]

fiance got me a kindle for my birthday <3

[batsplat]

qatar 2007 catalunya 2007 laguna 2008 prop on the latest paddock pass ep.... everyone picking casey/vale races as their 800cc picks iktr