I did a first round of editing to the end, and while in my head the last chapter was clunky (probably because I've changed direction on it about 3 times now), actually I was giggling and hiding my mouth behind my hand through most of it so I think it's okay :D The final sentence/paragraph however is clunky and doesn't work super well, but I have a bit of time to figure out something else.

Each chapter has a different PoV as each character figure some things out, and I like the story and how they all gravitate toward each other. However, the tone and narration are a bit distant, maybe a bit flat. It's the same mistake? flaw? that I saw in my OT3/multi-polyship Kn8 fic, where I was also spending a lot of brain power on "How would these characters fit together?". Maybe this is expected for the first few fics with a new ship. When I compare with DabiHawks for which I've written well over 100 fics (and over 200 with Hawks!), obviously I can't nail every nuance and subtlety of their emotions as easily. Yet. Anyway I still think there's good in there and I'm happy I wrote this :D I enjoy these characters so much.

---

Acting on instinct | Wind Breaker | Sakura/Nirei/Suou/Kiryuu/Tsugeura | 2.8k words (WIP, 3/5) | rated T

Summary: Something shifted for them all in that moment at Kiryuu's house. They all felt it. But Kiryuu was missing for it, so they can't do anything about it.

Not yet.


Read it on Dreamwidth or on AO3.

Because it came up when I was talking to my dad yesterday, and I remembered I meant to post it here and then forgot - if you haven't seen the Super Bowl halftime show this year, you should watch it. Even if you don't know who Bad Bunny is, or aren't into his style of music. The level of sheer technical skill involved in the staging is next-level, and he very much had a point he wanted to make and most certainly made it.



Bad Bunny's Super Bowl Halftime Show

And if you are interested, someone one Bluesky shared their Bad Bunny 101 write-up, which has links to a bunch of other articles and listening suggestions. Reggaeton is probably not gonna be one of my top genres personally, but I feel like it's good to get out of my listening confort zone and try new things, particularly when it's like, a global phenomenon right now.

Life is so scary but i have to live it.

Title: In Bloom
Rating: Teen
Type: Fic
Size:  466 words
Prompt: Rose
Fandom: Raffles
Ship: Bunny Manders/A.J. Raffles           
Warnings: None 
Notes: Also written for Raffles Week day 5 (countryside) and the "flowers bloom when anxious" square on my The Blooming Hour fandom bingo card.
Summary: A moment in the countryside.

Read it on AO3

8/100 (Table here)

Tags needed:
f: raffles

https://www.tiktok.com/@duckprintspress/video/7616760976498511134?_r=1&_t=ZP-94eqYeuCWjO

(Video ID: a white person with short reddish hair and gold-rimmed glasses sits before a bookshelf and speaks. /end ID)

Transcript: How do you feel, given Duck Prints Press’s mission statement and origin, about publishing books that are proudly “serial number filed off” fanfiction?

So, for people who aren’t familiar with that term, it just means somebody took a fanfic and, like, used find-and-replace to change the characters names and now are marketing it as original fiction. So if it was, I don’t know, Castiel and Dean – to use my own example – not that I’ve filed off serial numbers but I have written a lot of Destiel – then, you know, maybe Dean becomes some guy named Mitch, and Cas becomes, you know, Richard, and Mitch and Richard have their romance for the ages.

In this “original work,” how do I feel about it? I think it depends. I think it can be well done. I certainly – I don’t wanna name names, but I’ve been in fandom long enough that I know of major published works that were fanfic that are not widely known to have been fanfic and are very popular and are not getting, the, “oh, it’s got the serial numbers filed off, it’s bad.”

I think, just like most kinds of writings, it can be well done, it can be poorly done. I know as an author, at a point when I was having trouble making words on original work, I would write – I mostly write alternative universes, often very very far from the founding material. And part of the reason I did that was with the expectation that someday I would file the serial numbers off my own work. And it’s relatively easy to do when it’s very far from canon. That said, I think needs to be more than just a find-and-replace.

There’s things that work in fanfiction that won’t make sense if it’s an original fiction. If it’s poorly done, if those things aren’t changed, then it’s gonna read like fanfiction even if – you know – every will know, if I – I used Dean and Castiel as an example. If Dean – I mean if Mitch is still a monster hunter, and Richard is still an angel of the lord, it’s going to be pretty damn obvious that it was Supernatural fanfic, and that’s not necessarily gonna be that entertaining for people to read if they’re not interested in the fandom.

On the other hand, you know, I know of a Dean/Cas work that got remade as femslash – as sapphic – and completely rewritten. It’s a completely different book now even tho it has the same basic story and that’s bad in and of itself. So, what I think about it is – it really depends.

I think when they lean-in on that part for the marketing, though, that’s a little awkward. I feel like if any fan author did what tradpub is doing with “it’s actually Dramione” which is the ship for Draco Malfoy and Hermione. Or, you know, this was very clearly Reylo – which is Kylo Ren and Rey from Star Wars. Like… if any of us did that, we’d get our butts sued off. And it’s a little obnoxious to see places that are bigger than us taking advantage of that part of fandom culture in a way that fans never actually could. And that’s quite aside from whether or not they’re good books or bad books, because I think trying to say it’s okay when they’re good and it’s bad when they’re bad is actually not maybe the best framework for it.

But, yeah, sorry, I could keep going. I have strong opinions about fandom stuff. Basically, I think it can be done well. I think it can be done poorly. I don’t love the way it’s being marketed.

This is an Ask Me Anything. I’m Claire, the owner of Duck Prints Press. Hit me up if you have any questions!

Quick haul post heehee. Our local Daiso had MHA blind bag merch (?!?!) and my partner let me get at least one of everything they had except the stickers and the acrylic keychain. It seems like the collab was released in 2025 based on this tweet, and it took a year before my country got it on our shelves. I mean, I never even knew our local Daisos had anime stuff. Usually, it's just Sanrio. I'm guessing these are leftovers, though? Lol.

( 285 words )

koel (KOH-uhl) - n., any of several long-tail cuckoos (genus Eudynamys) of south-and-southeast Asia, the East Indies, and Australia.



Thanks, WikiMedia!

Exact taxonomy is still under debate, but call it a handful of species with numerous subspecies. Like other cuckoos, they are parasitic, laying eggs in the nests of other birds to be raised by them. The name is from Hindi koyal, from Sanskrit kokila, after the bird's call.

---L.

For large-scale projects, specifically for ships. All my ship-related resources for the era are for the British Navy, and books on colour that I've read have been on artists' paints or dyes.

How would a French Imperial Navy vessel be painted, not at one of the big shipyards? Would it be mixed up on site from raw ingredients, or bought in? Would there be barrels, buckets with lids, cannisters, vats or what - and what would the paint be made of? 

Searching online produces info on painting scale models, or contemporary pictures of ships. I found a chapter on ship decoration in Conway's History of the Ship: The Line of Battle but that doesn't have the early-in-the-process details I want. I found an article on the pre-Revolutionary Navy in the International Journal of Maritime History, by David Plouviez, that's too early and still doesn't cover paint.

Thank-you in advance.

Not much going on with me, but it's been a while since I've posted and I know that if I don't make an effort I'll go silent again, maybe for another year :) So:

• As promised, an announcement that The Boat of Small Mysteries is out in paperback. Though I only pressed the button yesterday so it may take some time to work it's way through to the shops.

• Louise's belly dance class are now in full preparatory panic mode for the Cambridge hafla on the 11th of April. Next week we do the dress rehearsal for the group veil choreography which we are putting on there. I'm not getting on well with the veil - I get it stuck on my hair, or step on it. Even when I don't do that, I can't make the turns fast enough to keep up with the rest of the class, though it's quite a slow and elegant dance. Eh, this is what I get for trying to dance when I am naturally unathletic. Nevertheless we persist.

• Louise's veil dance is set to Rumeli Hisarı nın Yapılışı Which bears out my point about her always finding the best music.

• I am also doing my Fos solo at the Cambridge hafla, so I have started practicing that again, and have completely revamped the outfit that goes with it. I must practice putting the outfit on also, because it involves body glitter and fake nails, neither of which I have experience with.

• I'm at the end of week 10 of the 12 week low calorie diet I am on, and although I will have lost 3 stone (42lb) by the end of it, I still have a good 3 stone left to go, and I am afraid that if I loosen my grip even slightly it will all come back on and more. Still, this diet has been true to its word so far, so I'll trust it as I move to the next stage (intermittent fasting instead of permanent fasting.)

• My fear that I would lose so much weight before April that I wouldn't be able to wear the dress I bought at Christmas for the hafla in April has not been borne out. The dress is stretchy, and I had a lot to lose!

• Health-wise, I have been feeling less sluggish. The permanent pain in my hands and feet has eased - thank God! I find it easier to stand up and sit down, and much easier to get in and out of the car. I can also fasten my seatbelt without taking off my coat, which is just a factor of cars being too small, rather than my health, but is still an improvement in my day to day life in the winter.

Watching the live-action movie motivated me to finally edit this fic! It doesn't actually work with the movie timeline and heavily relies on anime-only elements, but it is done :D

---

Locked in orbit | Let's go karaoke! | Kyouji/Satomi | 1.8k words | rated T

Summary: Kyouji has been in this time loop for a long time now, meeting Satomi and growing closer over and over, trying to keep him safe. Failing, sometimes. Those are the Bad Loops. If he plays his cards right though, Kyouji hopes he can make this loop the final one.

Read it on Dreamwidth or on AO3.

All I want is to see you again
Is that such a sin?

plotting something... that will HOPEFULLY happen (its a group order lol, i cant carry it myself) alas i cannot specify what kind of merch it is yet. what i can do tho is crop it to show my wip!!

Necro no Hanayome has been a dear song to me for a long time. you know how i am with stories with grief! i still listen to it often (usually the remastered version nowadays), and it kills me every time. so its about time i drew something about it!!

i cant continue this until theres a completed template to work with, but hey i got a rough sketch down! very excited to continue when possible (:

other designs i plan on are something with kasane teto and ted, duke of venomania (this one might get cut against my will tho), and Maybe a classic miku song like rolling girl.. maybe even magnet... if i dont do magnet then i may try to sneak in a luka design too, im biased towards just be friends or corruption garden but well see LOL

the doctor and his dead love, his bride, the woman who was abandoned by all but him, god i love this song and its story

—

ive thought of having a Velein AU w this song before. Velaris as the doctor, Einjar as the bride groom. would love to do illustrations of it sometime (:
would it end in such tragedy as well tho? ...likely yes, or perhaps an altered tragedy

A teensy bit late, but no worse for it, it's time for Thursday Recs!


Do you have a rec for this week? Just reply to this post with something queer or queer-adjacent (such as, soap made by a queer person that isn't necessarily queer themed) that you'd, well, recommend. Self-recs are welcome, as are recs for fandom-related content!

Or have you tried something that's been recced here? Do you have your own report to share about it? I'd love to hear about it!

Do you have a Doctor Who community or a journal that we are not currently linking to? Leave a note in the comments and we'll add you to the watchlist (doctor_watch).

Editor's Note: If your item was not linked, it's because the header lacked the information that we like to give our readers. Please at least give the title, rating, and pairing or characters, and please include the header in the storypost itself, not just in the linking post. Spoiler warnings are also greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Off-Dreamwidth News
Details of Doctor Who Magazine #627, on sale now
Blogtor Who's video of the day is a clip from the 50th anniversary celebrations

(News via doctorwhonews_feed and blogtorwho_feed among others.)

If you were not linked, and would like to be, contact us in the comments with further information and your link.

Wrapping up volume 2 of Seven Seas’ new print edition of PSOH! Sometimes with comparisons to volume 3 of the original Tokyopop translation.

I’m posting the individual reactions on Mastodon and Bluesky, then rounding them up in the blog. Previous roundups in my PSOH fandom tag. You can pick up the books with my affiliate links here.

I made myself so hungry looking up the desserts named in this one, and I don’t think any of them are sold in my area. Boo.

 

 

Name: Sam
Age group: 50+
Country: USA
Subscription/Access Policy: Anyone can subscribe. I've not been super active lately for reasons. If you give me access, I'll check you out and may give it back. I have one access level which is mostly for people who can put up with my mental and physical health whining.

Main Fandoms: The Scarlet Pimpernel, Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss
Other Fandoms: Les Misérables, Jekyll & Hyde (musical), Revolutionary Girl Utena, Rose of Versailles, Le Chevalier D'Eon, Leijiverse anime, The Owl House
Fannish Interests: I like to read and write fic. I've been binging Hazbin Hotel fic on AO3. I used to RP a lot in big games, but I don't have the stamina. I would love to find a parter or two who wants to RP Hazbin Hotel, especially if they can play Lucifer.
OTPs and Ships: LuciLillith, Enjolras/Grantaire, Utena/Anthy, radioapple (guilty pleasure, though appleradio is hotter)

Favourite Movies: Doctor Zhivago, Red Cliff, Moulin Rouge, Love Actually, Die Hard, Legend, Stargate
TV Shows: Star Trek anything, Babylon 5, Firefly, Stargate SG1, Blake's 7, Red Dwarf, Dr. Who, All Creatures Great and Small, The Good Witch, Lucifer
Books: War of the Flowers (Tad Williams), Good Omens, Man of His Word series, Incarnations of Immortality, Vorkosigan Saga, El Dorado (Baroness Orczy), Mordant's Need series (Donaldson) Tailchaser's Song (Williams), etc. I'm a book whore.
Music: Indigo Girls, Billy Joel, Blackmore's Night, Lilliac, Within Temptation, Dar Williams, musical theatre
Games: TES: Skyrim, Spyro, Fable
Comics/Anime/Misc: Watchmen, Freakangels

subtitle that didn't fit in the subject line: On Being Both, Beyond, and In-Between

I'm going to say this prominently because I think it has caused some confusion among reviewers: This is a book by two nonbinary authors and the title is Life Isn't Binary, and it is NOT (primarily) about nonbinary gender identity! If you want a book that is primarily about nonbinary gender identity, this book may not give you what you're looking for!

Instead, it is about problems with binary thinking in all areas of life. There is a tendency for people to view many things in terms of two categories in opposition. Male/female and cis/trans, yes, but also Black/white, straight/gay, privileged/marginalized, body/mind, emotion/logic, friend/lover, us/them. The book examines and deconstructs these binaries and more, and encourages thinking about who currently benefits from their resultant flattening of nuance, and what we could gain from framing concepts in a less polarized way.

The book is short but extremely densely packed with ideas. I read it as a two-person book club with dragonque, and every chapter elicited fruitful discussion about its points and how they related to our own lives and experiences. I have known dragonque for a long time and I feel like I got to know them much better through talking about this book!

I do think at times it can feel too dense and too short for the vast scope of its thesis. The authors can state in one sentence an absolutely massive idea that could itself be an entire book, and that's the only thing they say about it because they're already on to the next point. (The authors have in fact collaborated on several other books which sound like they may elaborate on some of the things where I was like, "so, that's all you're going to say about that one? okay!")

But I found the book very worthwhile and thought-provoking, and after returning it to the library I bought my own copy because I expect I will be re-reading it, referring to it, or wanting to lend it to people.