10trueloves: Surprise

Jan. 22nd, 2026 08:38 pm
senmut: Head shot of Black Canary of DC Comics (Comics: Black Canary)
[personal profile] senmut
AO3 Link | Shelter in Danger (500 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: DC Comics (General), Marvel Comics (General)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Dinah Lance/Erik Lensherr
Characters: Dinah Lance, Erik Lehnsherr
Additional Tags: Crossover, +Modern Age (1986-Present)
Summary:

While trapped in a different universe, Dinah falls for another older man



Shelter in Danger

When Dinah Lance found herself catapulted into another dimension, it wasn't all that shocking. She's been tossed through time, sent to other worlds, and even touched alternate versions of her own world. To wake up in a world that was completely unlike her own as far as people and problems went, but still an Earth wasn't that hard to come to terms with.

No, the thing that shocked her was finding an older white-haired man with a harder sense of justice than she usually took for herself that stirred her emotions so strongly. Similarities to another man of her own world may have set the stage for growing closer, but it was Erik's ability to debate with her, to see her as a capable fighter in her own right, and his old-fashioned manners that sealed her doom.

There was just something irresistible in a man that opened doors for her but didn't think she needed to be in the kitchen for Dinah Lance.





She'd given her word that she would help defend this small island refuge. She wanted no part of his retaliatory strikes, but the people who were just trying to live their lives were under her protection. As Erik — Magneto currently — was deflecting the heavy artillery back into the attackers, Black Canary was ably working defense against the ground assault with his other combatants.

She had no idea how many amphibious vehicles she grounded permanently, how many people in deep-water gear were shoved back off the beach, but eventually Magneto gathered up all of the remaining debris from the assault and threw it out to join the artificial reef off his coastline. While he did that, she acquired one of her protein-gels, slaking a need for energy and liquid at once before seeing if she needed to help with injured.

Magneto landed beside her moments later, his hand going to the small of her back. She wasn't thinking about the likely human cost of the assault; mutants were feared and hunted here, and that force had come with the intent to kill or enslave from all she had managed to dig up.

"Your voice, my dear, is devastating. And yet you espouse more peaceful notions than I," he said with grim satisfaction over the results she'd gotten.

"I learned to modulate it over the years, so I get the effect I want," she said, shifting just slightly closer, her voice dipping into flirting tones.

"Hmm, and what effect do you wish now?" he asked, matching her tone, as that strong hand on her lower back shifted more to her hip and upper ass.

"The ability to be somewhere private and less clothed, of course," she told him.

He laughed, deep and throaty. "Oh, I like that direct approach." He guided her toward his own room, leaving the aftermath to his lieutenants. Dinah was more than happy with that choice, hoping if she distracted him long enough, he'd choose some other way than direct assault on the attacking nation.

8 for good luck

Jan. 22nd, 2026 09:21 pm
starandrea: (Default)
[personal profile] starandrea
Happy birthday [personal profile] marcicat!!!!!!!! You are my favorite person in the world and I hope you have the best and sparkliest year yet ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

I was trying to think of a fic rec I don't know for sure you've already read, and it was not easy! I have likely not succeeded, but I thought the excerpt was funny enough to be worth it regardless.

Pre-Existing Condition, by Helenish

“Isn’t this fraud?” Matt says. He’s inspecting the card again, who knows what’s so interesting about it, just John’s name at the top next to SUBSCRIBER NAME: and then a neat row of lines at the bottom under DEPENDENTS: SPOUSE Farrell M; CHILD McLane L; CHILD McLane J.

“Oh, right, I forgot what a law-abiding citizen you were,“ John begins, “You can do whatever you want because you’re a fucking anarchist—“

“—Democrat, but okay—“

“but god forbid I should ever—“ the argument clicking along down the old familiar track—except Matt laughs.

“Fine, man, you got me. I only have one leg. What do you want for dinner?”

Book review: A Memory Called Empire

Jan. 22nd, 2026 06:03 pm
rocky41_7: (Default)
[personal profile] rocky41_7 posting in [community profile] booknook
Title: A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan #1)
Author: Arkady Martine
Narrator: Amy Landon
Genre: Fantasy/Sci-fi, fiction

I realized as I was approaching the end of this book that it is the third unfinished series sapphic SFF centering the machinations of an empire that I've read lately (the others being The Locked Tomb and The Masquerade). A Memory Called Empire is the first book in the Teixcalaan series by Arkady Martine (narrated by Amy Landon in the audiobook) and tells the story of Mahit Dzmare, a diplomat from an as-yet-unconquered satellite state of the Teixcalaanli Empire entering her role as ambassador for the first time--after the previous ambassador went radio silent. 

For fans of fantasy politics, I highly recommend this one. Mahit enters a political scene on the cusp of boiling over and is thrown not only into navigating a culture and society she's only ever read about, but having to piece together what her predecessor was doing, why he was doing it, and what happened to him. It's a whirlwind of not knowing who to trust, what to lean on, or where to go.

Martine creates such an interesting world here in Teixcalaan and the mindset of a people who pride themselves on being artists above all and yet exist as ruthless conquerors within their corner of space. Furthermore, Mahit herself is in a fascinating position as someone who's been half in love with this empire since childhood, and yet is all too keenly aware of the threat it poses to her and her home. Mahit does well in Teixcalaan--she loves the poetry and literature they so highly prize, she's able to navigate Teixcalaanli society and see the double meanings everywhere, and she's excited to try her hand at these things. And yet--if she plays her cards wrong, it will end with her home being gobbled up by Empire, and as Mahit herself says: Nothing touched by Empire remains unchanged.

I really enjoyed her characters too--3-Seagrass stole the show for me--and they all have believably varied and grounded views and opinions, with the sorts of blind spots and biases you would expect from people in their respective positions. There's character growth and change too, which is always fun to see, and I'm excited to see how that progresses in the next book.

If I had a complaint, and it's a minor one, it's that the prose is sometimes overly repetitive and explanatory, as if Martine doesn't quite trust her audience to remember things from earlier in the book, or understand what's being implied, which occasionally has the effect of making Mahit look less intelligent than her role would demand. However, it didn't happen often enough that I was truly annoyed, and I think the book gets better about it as it goes on.

On the whole, a fun, exciting read (although it takes its time to set up--expect a slow start!) that left me actually looking forward to my commute for a chance to listen to more. Already checking to see if my library has the next book available.

rocky41_7: (Default)
[personal profile] rocky41_7
I realized as I was approaching the end of this book that it is the third unfinished series sapphic SFF centering the machinations of an empire that I've read lately (the others being The Locked Tomb and The Masquerade). A Memory Called Empire is the first book in the Teixcalaan series by Arkady Martine (narrated by Amy Landon in the audiobook) and tells the story of Mahit Dzmare, a diplomat from an as-yet-unconquered satellite state of the Teixcalaanli Empire entering her role as ambassador for the first time--after the previous ambassador went radio silent. 

For fans of fantasy politics, I highly recommend this one. Mahit enters a political scene on the cusp of boiling over and is thrown not only into navigating a culture and society she's only ever read about, but having to piece together what her predecessor was doing, why he was doing it, and what happened to him. It's a whirlwind of not knowing who to trust, what to lean on, or where to go.

Martine creates such an interesting world here in Teixcalaan and the mindset of a people who pride themselves on being artists above all and yet exist as ruthless conquerors within their corner of space. Furthermore, Mahit herself is in a fascinating position as someone who's been half in love with this empire since childhood, and yet is all too keenly aware of the threat it poses to her and her home. Mahit does well in Teixcalaan--she loves the poetry and literature they so highly prize, she's able to navigate Teixcalaanli society and see the double meanings everywhere, and she's excited to try her hand at these things. And yet--if she plays her cards wrong, it will end with her home being gobbled up by Empire, and as Mahit herself says: Nothing touched by Empire remains unchanged.

I really enjoyed her characters too--3-Seagrass stole the show for me--and they all have believably varied and grounded views and opinions, with the sorts of blind spots and biases you would expect from people in their respective positions. There's character growth and change too, which is always fun to see, and I'm excited to see how that progresses in the next book.

If I had a complaint, and it's a minor one, it's that the prose is sometimes overly repetitive and explanatory, as if Martine doesn't quite trust her audience to remember things from earlier in the book, or understand what's being implied, which occasionally has the effect of making Mahit look less intelligent than her role would demand. However, it didn't happen often enough that I was truly annoyed, and I think the book gets better about it as it goes on.

On the whole, a fun, exciting read (although it takes its time to set up--expect a slow start!) that left me actually looking forward to my commute for a chance to listen to more. Already checking to see if my library has the next book available.

Daily Happiness

Jan. 22nd, 2026 05:40 pm
torachan: a cartoon bear eating a large sausage (magical talking bear prostitute)
[personal profile] torachan
1. Having remembered the new Shake Shack near work, I decided to go there for lunch today to try more of the Korean menu items.



The chicken sandwich was so good. It did make me feel bloated for several hours afterwards, but it was worth it. The fries with kimchi powder were also very tasty, though I didn't love the dipping sauce that came with them. And I almost forgot, but the drink was pomegranate basil lemonade. Not part of the Korean menu, but they always have a variety of seasonal lemonades and they're always good. This one was delicious.

2. There was a tiny bit of rain today but nothing that interfered with my day. As I was getting home from my morning walk there were a few sprinkles, but it was over soon. When I got down to work, the streets were wet, so it had clearly rained a bit more down there, but it wasn't raining when I got there or when I went out for a walk after lunch. It rained a little bit on the drive home, but only barely more than sprinkles, and was done by the time I arrived. I feel like we had enough rain earlier in the month so I'm fine with no more than this amount now lol.

3. I have gotten some really great pics of Tuxie yesterday and today. He looks like he's on a prayer mat here lol.

Book Review: Ender's Game

Jan. 22nd, 2026 08:07 pm
clavally: (Default)
[personal profile] clavally
Well, this is book 7 for the month. I really didn't intend to read this much, but might as well keep it up until I hit my spring/summer reading slump.

Title: Ender's Game
Author: Orson Scott Card
Genre: Science Fiction

PEACH:

Plot: 5
Enjoyment: 5
Artistry: 5
Characters: 4.5
Heart: 4.5

4.75 Stars

I'm not going to bother with the other rating system. This was a really good book. I say this grudgingly since the author is an asshat, but it is very good. A really interesting couple of twists at the end, the only thing that detracted it a bit for me was this tiny plot hole that's bugging me. Anyway, if you enjoy science fiction, you should read this. And, this is another book I can cross off of my "25 greatest science fiction novels of all time" list that I'm trying to get through this year.

How about you guys? Read anything good, lately?

Poem: "The Bones of Chihuly"

Jan. 22nd, 2026 01:45 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Damask smiling over their shoulder (polychrome)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This poem is spillover from the March 4, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] librarygeek. It has been sponsored by a pool with [personal profile] fuzzyred. This poem belongs to the Big One and Shiv threads of the Polychrome Heroics series.

Warning: This poem contains intense topics that may distress some readers, especially glass artists and fans of glass art. Highlight to read the more detailed warnings, some of which are spoilers. It includes upset friends, crying man, emotional first aid, Shiv's awkward but effective crisis response, Chihuly Garden and Glass destroyed by earthquake, salvage operations, insufficient organization causing emotional upset, reference to clumsiness, sorting broken glass that used to be art, and other challenges. If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your taste and headspace before deciding if this is something you want to read.

Read more... )

some good things make a post

Jan. 22nd, 2026 10:56 pm
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
[personal profile] kaberett
  1. Saw the Child! Was given a Very Important Solar System Biscuit.
  2. Successfully slogged through a Whole Entire Exercise Routine, thanks be to company, and only tried to fall over for balance reasons rather than presyncope reasons. The Socks Continue Good. (We shall leave aside the part where my watch firmly told me I should start winding down for bed right before I began it...)
  3. A has indulged me to the tune of staying up late (post-wiggles and once we have finished our takeaway, which we have) so that the bread I did not manage to bake earlier in the day will be Ready To Be My Breakfast.
  4. Brain was willing to put down sudoku and actually read some book today! I am a bit closer to finishing a reread and embarking on the new thing!
  5. It feels like I might actually be able to fall asleep in reasonable time today. Goodnight. <3
fatalfae: Sunnydale Herald use ONLY. (Default)
[personal profile] fatalfae posting in [community profile] su_herald
Angel: (Opens the fridge, takes a bite out of an apple) Oh my God. Food. (Takes a bite out of something else) This is unbelievable. This is so... (Smells the apple) You know, I forgot how good it all tastes when you're alive!
Cordy: Yeah, and they didn't even have Cookie-Dough-Fudge-Mint-Chip when you were alive.
Angel: Mmm, I want some! Can you get that?
Cordy: It'll go straight to your thighs.

~~I Will Remember You~~



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1/22/2026 Inspiration Trail

Jan. 22nd, 2026 01:06 pm
mrkinch: Erik holding fieldglasses in "Russia" (bins)
[personal profile] mrkinch
Reading the rare bird alert this morning I saw that three of four birds I'd looked for and missed in the last two days had been reported by other people.:( Very discouraging. So discouraging that I stayed in bed with a cat instead of heading out before dawn. But I can't stay in bed all day, I get bored, so I left about 8 and started my list about 8:30. Better weather than four days ago and two more species but less interesting overall. No visible raptors or quail but more Golden-crowned Sparrows than I've seen lately. Acorn Woodpecker and Dark-eye Junco were heard and seen, and the California Thrasher was singing rather than just barking. The list: )

A Yellow-rumped Warbler isn't generally cause for celebration but there have been very few Warblers on this trail this Winter.

The weather, by layers

Jan. 22nd, 2026 03:35 pm
senmut: 3 blue seahorse shapes of varying sizes on a dark background (General: Seahorse Triad)
[personal profile] senmut
50-65 F? - One layer with a jacket.
35-50 F? - Double pants, jacket, hat and gloves.
20-35 g? - Double layers, jacket, hat, gloves, winter boots.
Below 20 F? - Double layers, jacket, hat, DOUBLE GLOVES, Utility Work Suit, winter boots.

And yes, I will wear that at any temp below 20, into the negatives, as witnessed by previous winters. And, since the wind USUALLY dies at night, it's actually not so bad to walk late, unless there's slippery ice on the road.

random post is random: banned books

Jan. 22nd, 2026 02:17 pm
ride_4ever: (Fraser - facepalm)
[personal profile] ride_4ever
I'm putting together a program at the public library where I work as an Acquisitions and Collection Management Librarian. It's a program about books that have been challenged or banned in the recent onslaught against the freedom to read in the U.S. Some of the reasons...I can't even! I don't know whether to engage in bitter laughter or to just plain cry...or both...yeah, both.

Just a few moments ago I encountered this one about a book I read recently: An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States  by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz has been banned in some parts of the U.S. because Dunbar-Ortiz puts Indigenous Native Americans at the center of her telling of U.S. history "causing the book to gain detractors who prefer that history be told from the colonizer perspective". To paraphrase Shakespeare in Hamlet: "If all history books were to be judged on preferred perspective 'who should scape whipping'."
muccamukk: Watercolour painting of a tea cup and saucer sitting on top of a stack of books. (Books: Cup and Saucer)
[personal profile] muccamukk
Canada Reads 2026 short list is out. Thoughts? Feelings? I've only read one book and didn't like it. Very excited that Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers is a champion. I could stare at her face until I die.


Rainbow heart sticker Cinder House by Freya Marske
This was getting hyped up by someone at my bookclub, and I probably should've known better (not because they don't have great recs, just that I'm more miss than hit on fairytale retellings), but it was a novella, so I thought I'd give it a go. I indeed should've known better.

It's a cute idea: the step mother murders both Cinderella and her father on the first page, and the rest of the story is about Cinderella's ghost haunting the house. I appreciated a lot of the little twists on the story (which seemed pretty closely linked to the Disney version, but I also haven't read a tonne of other versions, so maybe not). There's some neat worldbuilding around how society treats magic, and the author did a good job incorporating the history and politics of the country without info dumping. I liked how the glass slippers worked.

Unfortunately, I had a difficult time connecting with it, and I'm trying to work out how to describe why. The story had a certain smugness to it, maybe? Like it was aware that it was telling the version of the story that would appeal to someone who thought a bisexual ghost polycule was the solution to every love triangle, where of course the other woman was a secret badass, because this is the kind of story that has Awesome Women who Subvert Tropes. Which is something that I ought to enjoy, and have enjoyed in other contexts, but not here. Maybe it was just that it should've been a novel with a few more subplots to hold it up, but either way the emotional beats never felt all that earned to me. What should've been crowning moments of awesome kept feeling like they were happening because this was the kind of story where they had to happen? It's all very clever, but never felt like it had any grounding in real emotion.

I thought this was a first outing, but it looks like Marske has written a bunch, so maybe she's just not my thing.


Leave Our Bones Where They Lay by Aviaq Johnston
Found this in a library display of books advertised as short reads to help you make your year-end goal, which made me laugh.

Short stories set inside a framing device: every season, an Inuit man travels into the wilderness to meet with a monster, and every season he must tell the monster a story. As he grows older, he struggles to find an heir to continue the tradition, but his immediate family is shattered, and won't go, so he ends up leaning on a young granddaughter. The stories are a mix of twists on traditional Inuit legends, and contemporary snippets of life in the high arctic, with or without supernatural elements.

The chapters are also interspersed with line art of traditional Inuit tools, and beautiful full page black and white photographs of lichen. It's physically a really beautiful book.

Both the frame and the stories examine how colonisation has affected Inuit society, and the ways families and individuals figure out how to recover their culture and even thrive. There's a mix of horror, humour, and quiet sadness. Johnson had originally published some of the short stories independently, so there isn't an explicit connection between the stories and the frame. However, they are arranged so that the stories fit with who's telling them, and match the tone of the frame story, so it never felt cludged together.

I loved the conclusion, and finding out who the monster was, and why we were telling it stories, and the tender relationships between all the characters. Really beautiful, hope Johnson keeps publishing.


Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold, narrated by Kate Reading
Third time through this (maybe fourth?), and I still get new things out of it every reread.

Our heroine is middle-aged mother who has recently been freed from a curse, and now has to figure out if she's going to take another shot at having a life, or if she's just going to sink back into helplessness (which is a valid choice, considering how the rest of her life has gone!). She goes on pilgrimage, mostly to get out of the house, and then the gods get involved.

It's all about trying to figure out how to make choices, especially when your history with making them has been utterly catastrophic. It's also coming to understand that the narrative of your life has been told by other people, and maybe they didn't have your best interests at heart, even when they said they did. I also love how unrepentantly horny our heroine is. She hasn't gotten laid in a good twenty years, and is starting to think she should do something about that.

There are also a handful of beats about how women navigate in a patriarchal society, for good or ill, that largely avoid the way that a lot of books in these settings shame women for wanting power. Some characters we initial dismiss turn out to be capable of heroism, if someone thinks to ask it of them.

I just really love this duology.


Wounded Christmas Wolf by Lauren Esker
(Know the author disclaimer.)

A new series, with slightly different rules for the shapeshifters, which I enjoyed, and am interested in seeing how it builds out in future books.

I enjoyed how cheerfully over the top the set up was, with a family matriarch who was so into Christmas that the kids all have Christmas-themed names, and there's aggressively Christmas-themed cabins on the property, which is also a Christmas tree farm. And that the natural reaction to the relatively normal-person hero is, "Holy cow, this is all a lot." Which it was, and all the characters admitted it was, but we're just rolling with it now.

We have a classic Esker hero who's not sure where his place is in the world, or if he has one. He's got a whole traumatic backstory to heal from, and just falling in love isn't going to be enough to fix him. (I thought the fire theme could've used a little more set up). And a heroine who's also at loose ends and second guessing herself. The sparking romance built naturally around their foibles and hesitations, and was really sweet. I liked what we met of the rest of the family, especially the heroine's dad, and look forward to them getting their own books.

Birdfeeding

Jan. 22nd, 2026 01:32 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is cloudy and chilly.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a few sparrows.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 1/22/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 1/22/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 1/22/26 -- I filled the trolley twice with large branches that I hauled to the ritual meadow.  Now all that's left of the brushpile by the driveway is one big forked branch that I can't break down myself, and the leftover twigs that will need to be raked up. \o/

I've seen a large flock of sparrows, a male and a female cardinal separately, and a starling.

EDIT 1/22/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I've seen a pair of cardinals.

I am done for the night.
 
vriddy: K-9 Volume 1 Cover (k-9)
[personal profile] vriddy

And with this, we're caught up with the 3 volumes that are out! Very few bonus sketches in this one, instead they used/reused extra panels as if to extend the chapters. Like a close-up on hands, or on a face, or an apple to go with all the Eve and Eden imagery, etc. The effect looks neat when reading, though I do kinda miss getting the cute bonus scenes and sketches!

Ren's jacket )

Eve's profile )

Gaku's profile )

Ren's clothing )

Fujimaru's clothing )

Kagari's clothing )

Bonus illustration )

Fannish 50: Post 4!

Jan. 22nd, 2026 08:41 pm
soricel: (Default)
[personal profile] soricel
"Blue wondered what sort of creating they meant. She was always creating things, taking old things and cutting them up and making them better things. Taking things that already existed and transforming them into something else. This, she felt, was what most people meant when they called someone creative.

But she suspected that wasn’t how Calla meant it. She suspected that what Calla meant was the true meaning of creative: to make a thing where before there was none."

Read more... )

Check In: Day 22

Jan. 22nd, 2026 11:42 am
glitteringstars: (writing)
[personal profile] glitteringstars posting in [community profile] writethisfanfic
Hi-hi~!

How did writing go today?

Discussion question: do you have any go-to writing tips you'd like to share?

Profile

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