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For the Ask Me Anything December meme - Day #1!

The question today comes from

kass: Tell me things you love about Yuri on Ice?

Oh, I love so much about Yuri on Ice:

How Yuuri and Viktor are both seen to be living with mental health challenges and it doesn’t define them nor diminish them.
How their dedication to the sport (both the athleticism and the artistry) is so realistic.
How Yuuri as an unreliable narrator made Viktor seem to slightly sinister in the first few episodes and it was a delightful evolution for the viewer to go back and connect all the dots. Just fun storytelling.
How supportive Yuuri’s family and friends are of him, even when he feels as if he has failed them or let them down.
Makkachin.
How Viktor and Yuuri both call each other out on their behaviour and talk through things like goddamn adults. Also, how they both make mistakes and own up to those mistakes.
How by the end, Viktor can see a future for himself (with Yuuri, yes, but also for himself).
Also how there is so much left open for interpretation that we can fanfic AU *anything*

What do you all like about YOI?

In the spirit of getting to know all the new folks, I'm going to be doing a truncated December ask meme starting on Friday, so feel free to drop a question into the comments below and I'll queue it up!

Topics I'm particularly chatty about: Marvel stuff, Yuri on Ice, any of my fanfics (completed, wip, or rip), any of the old fandoms, the cultural zeitgeist of Buzzfeed Unsolved, Vancouver or BC, Sherlock Holmes, true crime.... and anything, really.

Ask away!

Dec. 7: kass: Tell me things you love about Yuri on Ice?
Dec. 8: schneefink:What are your favorite kinds of AU and why? (src)
Dec. 9: jjhunter: What do you carry with you?
Dec. 10: dinosaurswearingdior: are you a shaniac or a boogara or a mix or neither?
Dec. 11: Why do you write? (src)
Dec. 12:
Dec. 13: What piece of writing are you most proud of? (src)
Dec. 14:
Dec. 15:
Dec. 16: dimestore_romeo: I'm not sure if it's wip or rip, but its an old favourite nevertheless! How did you picture the rest of the plot for Hel's Bones turning out?
Dec. 17: How much of the story do you know before you start writing it? Do you use outlines? (src)
Dec. 17: Optimally, how many times does your work go through the revising process? (src)
Dec. 18: the one that got away (fic or fandom) (src)
Dec. 19: How do you come up with names and story titles? (src)
Dec. 20: What repeated themes do you see running through your work? (src)
Dec. 21: What's your policy on remixes, podfic, and other transformative work? (src)
Dec. 22: Where do you turn when your research is coming up with nothing of value to the story? (src)
Dec. 23: any media you enjoy but didn't get into the fandoms? (src)
Dec. 24: What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever gotten? (src)
Dec. 25:
Dec. 26: Out of all the characters you've ever written, which one is your favorite? Which one has surprised you the most? (src)
Dec. 27:
Dec. 28:
Dec. 29:
Dec. 30: Do you visualize scenes when/before you write them? Or do you go by how the words sound in your head? Both? Something else entirely? (src)
Dec. 31: What stories haven't you written that you would like to write? (src)

something I was working on last month and haven't posted here: a Chronicles of Narnia/Marvel Cinematic Universe fanfic featuring Clint Barton and Susan Pevensie, because.

Turn, Archer, and Heed the Wild Hunt: a Chronicles of Narnia/Marvel crossover by Mhalachai

Summary: In the summer of 1983, Clint Barton goes to live with his new foster mom in the middle of nowhere, Iowa. Now he just needs to figure out how negotiate this new life… and also what’s up with all the strange things happening in the night.

Sub-summary: Susan Pevensie's whole life is a ghost story

Read on AO3

One of the things I really miss about the old LJ days was the icon communities. Today I finally got my hands on a copy of photoshop (legally, even) and knocked out a few icons to spruce up the icon library here on DW. And, frustratingly, I realized that I have misplaced all my old photoshop filters

Anyway so new icons and then there's this which I can't resize down to 100 pixels without losing too much detail:

Now I need to go figure out if I stashed my old filters in Dropbox.....

Honestly? I wish I could say I was surprised by the recent turn of events at Tumblr. But this happens frequently to fandom spaces. Just back up your stuff and let people know where to find you, I guess?

the only bright side to my day is that I've been going through my fanart tag, ostensibly so I can see if I reblogged any art that might have "female-presenting nipples" (sidenote: what the fuckery) and I'm having quite the blast from the past.

Anyway I put all my fandom locations up in my profile so tag and subscribe if you like.

I'm on vacation for the month of December (it feels like it's been three years since I had a vacation because 2018 is the Bad Place) and so, spurred by the reminder that the building manager is coming by on Monday for the annual inspection, I've been working on a winter apartment cleanse. Chucking out stuff that's past it's best-by date, putting in the laundry, stacking up the books that seem to appear on any semi-flat surface. Once I have the laundry out of the dryer and folded away, I'll run the vacuum and be done with it all.

I'm in a bit of a strange place, mentally, where my brain keeps looping on Anxiety's Greatest Hits, so I"m trying to distract myself by Emulating A Healthy Adult. There's lots of water and herbal tea involved, and making of lists. Hopefully something will help.

Also since I have a month that I'm not checking work email, I'll likely be blogging more frequently.

I got a new smoke detector in my place in July - the old one was like 20 years old and finally died. Since then everything was working fine until two weeks ago, when the detector went off once for no reason at 7am. I thought it might be dust so I vacuumed it. Then last night at 2am the damned thing beeped again for no reason.

I thought it might be humidity, even though it wasn't overly humid at 2am, so I did some research, and one thing that popped was that for the hard-wired smoke detectors (instead of the battery ones) is that they can be triggered when the power company switches to a new grid. And given that both alarms happened on the hour (directly on the hour) makes me wonder if that's it.

And I don't know what to do about it.

On the one hand, it only goes off once. Then again, getting woken from a deep sleep by the fire alarm is not pleasant.

We'll see what happens next.

it's Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend and the long weekend came at just the right time... although the "spending time with family" part of the equation can be a bit much at times.

Anyway my mother and I made a neat salad and I wanted to share it:

Pickled Beet and Fennel Salad

1 fennel bulb, sliced thinly across the grain
2 medium oranges, peeled and membrane removed
Pickled beets (an amount roughly equivalent to the volume of the fennel), cut into chunks
a teaspoon of fresh dill, minced
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Steps: Combine all the things, lightly drizzle with the olive oil, put in the fridge for about an hour to let the flavours combine.

If you don't have pickled beets, boil or roast some regular ones and add in a bit of balsamic vinegar to balance out the sweetness.

I live in one of those cities where it does not get very warm - Vancouver is on the west coast, directly on the ocean, and we get a fair amount of wind even in hot periods.

This year we haven't really had any heat waves, until this week - today is the first day of what is forecasted to be 8 days of hot weather in a row. 'm lucky enough to have a cross-draft in my apartment so it's not too bad, but I feel for the people who don't have a way to get any air (we are not an air-conditioning prone city).

I did go out earlier to go to the bank and it's rather warm in the direct sun. 1/10, would not recommend.

One of the things that I find as I get older is that I'm better able to articulate how hard I find online social rituals, in addition to the hell I find in-person interactions. I can usually fake my way through work-related stuff, but the rest? Who knows. Like, online, how often is too often to initiate chat if you're both online? How much is too little? Is there some sort of way to end a convo that doesn't sound rude? In person, how do talk to? Words? Interests? Seriously, human interaction is overly complicated and I cannot find any source documentation.

(Also? for some reason phone calls are easy to parse. Not sure why that's the one thing that doesn't trip me up.)

my mother told me a story a couple of years ago - she put me into kindergarten a year and a half early because she figured I was so smart and so tall (really, I was the tallest kid in my class even for being so young) and she hoped my social skills would develop.

They did not. Because, as I told her halfway through that year, the teacher told us how to draw and how to write letters, but no one told us how to behave the right way. She thought I was joking but I was not.

And now I'm closer to 40 than I like to contemplate and I still don't know how I'm supposed to do this all the right way.

Oh well.

So this is that Yuri on Ice story that I've been writing on my summer vacation - here's chapter 5 of seven, in which our heroes kiss. Or do they?

And each man stands with his face in the light (on AO3)

Summary: After the carnage on the fields of the Elven Wars, Viktor Ivanovich, general of the northern armies, was done with fighting. When Prince Regent Yuri asked him to track down the mysterious man who slew the Elven King, Viktor complies, hardly knowing how that one action will change his life forever...

In this chapter: Viktor, desiring a break from the palace and some time alone to stare dreamily into Yuuri’s lovely face, arranges for a picnic in a secret spot! Yuuri is on it! But what will come of it all when Viktor puts both feet in his mouth? Is there any chance for true love? Find out, in this week’s episode of As the Sword Turns…

(the story is much more serious than I’m making it out to be, but you get my drift)

( An excerpt below the cut )

Read chapter five on AO3.

So the 4th wave of pillowfort invites are out and I got one, so of course I signed into DW.

A bit about where I'm at these days with my fics:

Hands of Clay is up to chapter 32 and I'm slogging away at chapter 33
I've written a number of Yuri on Ice!!! fics since I last posted here
And I'm nearly done the "what I did on my summer vacation" Yuri on Ice!!! fantasy AU, And each man stands with his face in the light. I decided that as I wasn't going anywhere for my 3 weeks vacation this year, I wanted to see if I could pull off something from left field. And I am just writing the last chapter (er, procrastinating on the last chapter) now.

Anyway, if you're in pillowfort, come find me at https://pillowfort.io/mhalachai. If not, I'll be here and on tumblr.

What's everyone been up to recently?

hey! have you ever read something so great you think about it for days on end? And re-read pieces of it while waiting for the bus and while on hold on the phone? that’s so amazing you need to share it with everyone you know?

this is the best original story I have read in months - it’s got everything - futuristic space politics! arranged marriages! slow burn! space pirates! danger and intrigue! you-fell-in-an-icy-river-and-we-need-to-cuddle-naked-for-warmth!

The Course of Honour by Avoliot

When Jainan arrived on Iskat to represent his home planet in a diplomatic marriage to Imperial Prince Taam, he was naïve enough to hope the match would work. Taam knew better. Five years later, his confidence shattered, Jainan is released when Taam dies in an accident, only to be faced with another marriage to help salvage his treaty. Jainan understands how the real world works now; but Prince Kiem - the cheerful, scandal-prone darling of the Iskat celebrity magazines - keeps breaking all the rules he's learned.

it’s a story with great characterization and an amazing plot and when I read the first line, I said to myself, now that’s how to open a story.

so yeah check it out :D

(read the warnings on the story as they’re quite relevant to the entire story)

(also posted on tumblr earlier this month but i wanted to share this here too)

my very good friend is getting married in a few weeks and yesterday we went out to North Surrey for her to get the final pieces of her ensemble, and we got to talking as one does on a long car ride to Surrey. One of the things she’s worried about is that she hates to be centre of attention and she’s not sure how we’ll she’s going to deal with it at her wedding.

So I pointed out that in the room during the ceremony, 90% the people there are going to be insanely happy for her, 5% will be envious af at how good she’s going to look, and the remaining 5% will be a fascinating combination of the two. She started laughing and I still think that’s the best piece of advice I’ve given in about 10 years.

tomorrow is my 8-year anniversary at my current job. I'm of mixed emotions about that... the people are great to work with and we're doing really important work and I really believe in our mission (and I do have to be honest I get paid quite reasonably and i get six weeks of vacation and a pension plan and I am fully aware of how well-compensated i am).

But it's been 8 years, and while I'm always doing new things and new work and new projects, I wonder if I'm letting 'being safe' employment-wise and financially hold me back from seeking new challenges that might advance my career quicker.

But quicker towards what? Where?

I don't know the answers to that.

But yes. Eight years.

so i’ve been feeling like a straight up zombie for months now and i went to my doc and said hey is the depression (like she’s been low-key suggesting medication for like two years now and i”m not quite there yet) and she said probably but (and she sighed dramatically) we should test your iron just in case and anyway the joke’s on her, I’m like three ug/L away from serious iron deficiency. Take that, medical profession.

(I mean, I also still have depression, it’s just not what’s currently causing me to feel like I’ve operating on 2 hours sleep a night for 6 months)

@musings-on-bucky-barnes left a comment on the latest chapter of Hands of Clay re how Steve must have felt during the “Mom hugs are the best hugs” debacle, so I wrote the (fluffy, fluffy) aftermath.

Set the night of the last chapter of Hands of Clay

Abraham sat back, glancing at his watch. "Steven, when do you want to drive home?"

Steve rubbed his hand over his mouth. "What time... Hell, it's almost ten."

"That's why we got the kids into their PJs before letting them watch that movie." James pushed his coffee cup away. "You two need any help getting Clint out to the car?"

"Nah." Steve blinked a few times. "I think I'm getting old, even I'm ready for bed."

( more behind the cut )

as an aside, yesterday when I was getting flowers for my particular mother, the lady there said “Happy Mothers Day!” to me and I’m like yeah I probably do look that tired.

K i had brunch at my parents’ today, and we had the most delicious oatmeal raspberry scones (I’l trying to source the recipe). The menu was:

Poached eggs on english muffins with cream cheese and smoked salmon, garnished with chives, fresh dill, and capers<
oatmeal raspberry scones
maple pepper bacon
an orange-grapefruit-raspberry fruit salad with a garnish of mint (the fruit was sweet enough to not need additional sugar)

our table:

The fresh dill really carried the egg dish.

surreal work week aside, I had a pretty good day on writing today on the next part of my Blood in the Water Yuri on Ice! series. I have about 20 tabs open with information on all of the 2015-16 figure skating season events, and also most of the pages from the Yuri on Ice wiki, as this next installment opens just before Yuuri’s free skate at the 2016 World Championship in Boston. I had to stop myself from constructing his program’s technical elements to figure out what he would really have scored, and instead just handwaved things.

Also I think I now know why the Yuri on Ice writers focused on the Grand Prix series instead of the others, and not just because it comes first in the season - at the GP events and final, there are only six skaters performing in each event. At the others, including Worlds, there are upwards of 24 skaters performing in every event - trying to write the stage mechanics of 24 skaters, plus coaches, is a bloody nightmare.

Anyway, the struggle continues. Have a good week, everyone.

so I was reading an article today that tried to match the best (and worst) book to movie adaptations using statistics. I don’t hold with “mathematics”, but I wanted to throw my hat in the ring with five of my favourites.

In no particular order, wherein I have both read the book and seen the movies:

Matilda
Princess Bride
The Secret Garden
Silence of the Lambs
bonus: Sherlock Holmes (Grenada/Jeremy Brett) (I know it’s TV but in this case it counts)

I would argue that the Twilight movies are objectively better entertainment than the books, but then I didn’t actually like either, so they’re off the list.

Anyway. What are your favourite book-to-movie adaptations?

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mhalachai was here

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Ask Me Anything December #1

Ask Me Anything December

Fic: Turn, Archer, and Heed the Wild Hunt: a Chronicles of Narnia/Marvel crossover

an eva green appreciation blog (was: icons)

(no subject)

starting off on a note

home fires not burning

Canadian Thanksgiving

(no subject)

stuff

Fic: And each man stands with his face in the light - Chapter 5/7 - Yuri!!! on Ice fantasy!AU

internet places

story rec: The Course of Honour by Avoliot

The Course of Honour by Avoliot

friends

eight years

(no subject)

some fluff after Hands of Clay chapter 29

mother's day 2017

in an attempt at using this as my writing journal, some tumblr crossposting

five favourite book-to-movie adaptations

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April 2026

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