switchbladesis | Reading

+ Managed to finish up nearly all my Christmas shopping today, huzzah. My brother is getting a bunch of cheeses and some spreads and crackers, I just need his gf to send me a picture of his comics shelf so I can order him a book to round it out.

I do need to do wrapping though. To think I used to love doing that back in the day.

+ Also found a Christmas calendar at 40% off, so now I'll have something to open every day after all. It's from the Finnish brand Lumene and if half of it is as good as the eye cream I've already tried, I got a real bargain.

+ Very sad to hear about the loss of Rob Reiner, and it just keeps getting sadder as I read about all the wonderful things he did and stood for.

+ Please tell me more of you are watching Pluribus? The last episode was the best one yet, and I find myself suddenly willing to go to war for one of the characters. But that whole episode, oh man. Ten out of ten. I even double dipped and downloaded a couple of episodes so I can make some damn icons. *mutters about stupid streaming apps*

+ Also I am now watching watch alongs for IWTV on yt. I need more people to be blathering on about these vampires. Still taking a predictable chunk out of my fic reading time, and now I'm down to one buffer rec for Rec-Cember. Somebody tell me to shape up.

❄️ ❄️ ❄️ ❄️
Rec-cember Day 14

The Good Place
Free Netflix Subscription by

Wildgoosery (10,103 words). Ah yes, the show that gave us an endless fun array of AUs to frolick in. And this is a delightful entry.
There’s a knock at the door. The weather here is perfect and mild — because of course it is — so they had left it standing open. This means that nothing obscures Eleanor’s view as an Amazonian gazelle of a woman steps theatrically into the doorway, one elegant arm sweeping up to rest upon the frame.

It occurs to Eleanor that this woman must have knocked on the outside of the house, then waited the exact right amount of time to make this entrance once Eleanor and Michael would be looking, but before they’d thought to shout “Hello?” or glance at each other or otherwise spoil the moment. Honestly, it’s pretty impressive, points for drama and also for wearing heels despite being damn near six feet tall.

“Ah, excellent timing!” Michael says, pleased. “Eleanor, this is your soulmate, Tahani.”

Tahani extends her hand, angled down and slightly curved. “Charmed,” she says, with the fanciest fucking accent Eleanor has ever heard in person.

“Soulmate! Wow!” Eleanor says. The position of Tahani’s offered hand makes her feel like she’s expected to take it in her own, bow over it, and kiss one elegant knuckle at a time, but she’s not really butch enough to pull off that kind of a Prince Charming maneuver, not even in flannel.

Current Music: KiNG MALA - cult leader

goodbyebird

❄️ ❄️ ❄️ ❄️
Rec-cember Day 14

Bound
Devil Never Saw the Likes of Us by

scioscribe (2,958 words). Never was I ever not a Tilly fangirl, and Bound is just one of those movies I love to bits. This fic absolutely nails them.
It started right on their doorstep. Violet got out of bed Saturday morning and tugged a silk bathrobe up over her shoulders.

It was new. Almost everything she had with her had been bought since they’d left the city, but this was so new she’d had to snap the tags off it before she pulled it on. It had this swirly peacock pattern on it, like streaks of paint, and paint felt sort of like their lucky charm.

She wasn’t much of a cook, but she could add water to a mix like anybody else, and she decided to make blueberry muffins. She liked the little pastel-and-foil cups you put them in to bake: everything had its own little splotch of color. The old apartment had been nothing but black and white and steel, lifeless and cold. This place—their place—was different.

She was just sliding the tray in the oven when she heard the knock.

Current Music: Los Campesinos! - The Holly & The Ivy

goodbyebird

❄️ ❄️ ❄️ ❄️
Rec-cember Day 13

Star Trek (2009 movie)
Lunch and Other Obscenities by

Rheanna (9,717 words). Just a delightful exploration of different cultures colliding.
When Starfleet Academy's Housing and Accommodation Officer—whose name, according to the sign next to her door, was Diane Maza—arrived at her office the next morning, Nyota was already there, waiting.

"My roommate's a sex-crazed exhibitionist with a food phobia," Nyota told her. "You have got to reassign me."

Maza didn't react. She regarded Nyota for a moment with a coolly appraising gaze that seemed designed to silently communicate that she hadn't just seen everything, she'd seen everything plus some other shit as well, and therefore any attempt to shock a reaction out of her was doomed at the outset.

goodbyebird

Well, that was a DUMB amount of scrolling. Remind me to keep up to date on fanart recs, BlueSky is not all too helpful. But I did get to make a variety of happy faces as i re-discovered some fanarts I'd forgotten about. We really are spoiled with IWTV. And to look forwards to: I pre-ordered the BLOOD & BROCADE fanart zine. Wanting to experience the first hand in physical format, I'll have to wait until February. And after that? Well, the rumor is s3 will premiere in April. At least, going by a verbal slip and a couple of deleted cast posts. Not too long now!

Anyways, have a bunch of fanart recs featuring pretty vampires.

❄️ ❄️ ❄️ ❄️
Rec-cember Day 12

( Be all the beautiful things you are, and be them without apology. For all eternity. )

Current Music: King princess - Girl Violence

goodbyebird

The fixation is hyper y'all. Headvids. Brain zoomies. Giddiness at good characterizations (and, for this particular fandom, the characters being ~an appropriate amount of Bastard~ 🤌).

❄️ ❄️ ❄️ ❄️
Rec-cember Day 11

vein by vein by

morian (2,415 words). Not Lestat being jealous of the sun XD (don't let my comment trick you into thinking it's crack fic, excellent voices in this)
Before he died and was reborn as a creature, not a man, Louis preferred the night. In this city that stretches and groans and howls to life at dusk, he had no reason to favour the sun. His business was the night. People like him, that is to say pimps and grifters, came to bed long after dawn and slept past noon.

It wasn't until he lost the sun that he learned it was something that could be missed.

Though even winters in New Orleans are mild and summer nights leave shirt collars clinging to sweat-slick necks like desperate hands, there is a special kind of warmth in sunlight on the skin. It reeks of childhood and the garden and the roof, of sunrise with his brother.

“I don’t miss the sun,” he will say to a jaded reporter on the balcony of his Dubai altar a hundred years from now. “The reminders it carries.” And it will be true then. But here is a man who ran through the street and nearly burned to death on the first morning he carried the dark gift. And here is a man who grieves his brother, not just one life lost but a thousand possibilities with it.

More fic, vid, and icon recs below :DD

( Btw I'm going to need a vampire to greet Daniel with 'so you're the divorce papers I've heard so much about' in s3, thanks. )

Current Location: on the bus home from work, I read porn on the busssss

goodbyebird

I'm back at work for a couple of days, so throwing today's rec out early to avoid forgetting and ruining my ten (\o/) day streak.

Chosen by the very first hit of the Random Icon button... *drumroll*

❄️ ❄️ ❄️ ❄️
Rec-cember Day 10

Hawkeye / Thunderbolts
got me thinking she's so cool by

explosivesky (6,983 words). Cute, through and through. Since it's December and at one point presents are mentioned, do I get to put another notch under Christmas Recs?
“Yes, I know of Ikea,” Yelena says. “I have been all over the world. I know it is a furniture store.”

“Okay, but have you ever been inside one?” Kate pegs. She even leans closer, as if searching for the crack revealed by the question.

Yelena shifts between feet. “No,” she mumbles grumpily. “I have not been inside one.”

“They have meatballs. Swedish meatballs. They’re delicious. We can get you, like, maybe a bookshelf, or a corkboard, or - definitely a bedspread, I honestly thought that was a large decorative boulder for some reason–”

“You want to bring color into my room, Kate Bishop?”

Current Location: I'm on a boat motherfucker
Current Music: King Princess - Girls

goodbyebird

Sooooo… if you read a spectacular fic but at the end see it has 880 whopping comments (🤯), is it still cool to add it to your rec list and assume there’s actually a person that hasn’t read it yet? Asking for a friend.

Toootally unrelated, I’ve been watching Welcome to Derry and my brain’s been having a great time being a bastard and making AUs where Claudia and Louis don’t make it to Europe but wind up in Derry instead. Bonus Armand in the sewers to be extra bastard about it.

❄️ ❄️ ❄️ ❄️
Rec-cember Day 9

Santa Clarita Diet
what all the troubles are for by

thegatorgood (1,961 words). Aw man I miss the Hammonds, and this had me laughing repeatedly.
Dad cleared his throat. "How's your foot, honey?"

"It's funny," said Mom, "but it reminds me of that time your mother took us out to that French restaurant right before we got engaged, do you remember? There was a cheese that tasted like this."

She chomped down on a toe. Abby decided it was time to check in with Eric.

"You did what?" he asked, when she told him about their latest run-in with the law.

Et tu, nerdus? "I don't get what's such a big deal about it. I mean, Dad pointed a gun at someone's head for the tenth time, but somehow I'm in trouble for grabbing a can of Pringles."

"Because," said Eric, his face in the Skype window so worried it was almost cute, "in west Texas pulling a gun out is like saying, 'Hi, I have a gun!' But if you pull a gun out and take stuff they put you in jail for years."

"It was just a bunch of junk food!"

"So what, Jean Valjean? Armed robbery is armed robbery."

Current Music: King Princess - Covers

goodbyebird

I had an epic, long, convoluted mess of a Wheel of Time dream last night - maybe because I saw a video from the costume exhibit on Insta right before bed idk - clearly this means today's fandom has already been chosen.

❄️ ❄️ ❄️ ❄️
Rec-cember Day 8

Wheel of Time
the children we once were by

QuickYoke (18, 083 words). Moiraine and Siuan, before the Tower. Both stories gripping tightly. Book!verse. Actually a prequel to a 60k fic, but I'll have to save that treat for later! Rec-Cember waits for no one ;)
When she turns a cramped corner in the crawlspace, a needlepoint of light greets her. It's small as a distant star in an otherwise ink black sky, but it is there. Moiraine shuffles forward and presses with all her might. The sound of a faint click, and an opening in the wall slides up to let her out.

Moiraine squeezes through and collapses on the other side, breathing heavily. When she sneezes, a plume of dust shivers off of her like a second skin. The floor beneath her is polished marble in a deep blue and gold pattern. Moiraine would recognise it anywhere. The air around her seems to hum, as though a glass had been struck with the flat edge of a knife and the sound is forever on the brink of fading. With dread rising in her throat, she looks up and climbs to her feet.

Early afternoon light streams through the windows of the throne room, tall and bursting in radiant patterns to mimic the rays that shine through them. Every surface is polished until it feels like standing upon a pane of glass or perhaps still water. The squared pillars and the arched midnight ceiling reflect perfect inversions of themselves down into the ground, so that it is less like walking through a chamber and more like being hung between the infinite space between mirrors; she is an insect suspended in a sea of abyssal amber.

The throne itself is ensconced atop a low-slung dais. Plain and unadorned but for an enormous disk of pure gold that enshrines the head of whosoever dares sit there in a halo. The chamber is empty, but still she wraps her arms around herself, glancing about for sign of any royal guardsmen lurking in the usual places. There are none.

goodbyebird

Melissa McCarthy hosted SNL again, and as always she was hilarious. Figured I'd share the holiday themed one!

Watch on YouTube

❄️ ❄️ ❄️ ❄️
Rec-cember Day 7

ST Voyager
Crossing the Line by

orphan_account (1,686 words). Excellent Janeway and Seven of Nine in this. Set after Dark Frontier.
She has leaned on Chakotay before, and taken his arm more times than she can count. She has hugged Kes like a mother, even if Kes is beyond their reach entirely now. She has put a steadying palm on B’Elanna’s shoulder, and leaned over Tom at the controls; she has put her arm around Harry, and placed her hand on Neelix’s as he hands her a mug of coffee. She has collapsed against Tuvok before and wept, deriving comfort of her own from his willingness to be close.

All of this is different, of course. Different relationships, different boundaries. But, in the end, it is the same. She is Captain to these people, but in the Delta quadrant, Captain cannot afford to be synonymous with distance.

The difference with Seven is that she is distant from everyone besides Kathryn. That’s a responsibility.

Current Music: Nusantara Beat - Tamat

scaramouche

I decided to check out the graphic novel Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees based on a rec by the same peeps who'd recced Nice House on the Lake, which I really enjoyed.

Beneath the Trees was recced with a description (paraphrased): it's a horror mystery set in a world of Sylvanian family-like anthropomorphic talking animals. The main character, Samantha Strong, is a brown bear and a serial killer who takes care to only murder victims outside her small town, i.e. don't shit where you eat, that kind of thing. But when another serial killer starts doing Hannibal Lecter-like murder displays in Sam's town, she has to get on the case and find the killer before the police look too closely and catch her instead.

I loved the weird little world of the novel, because although it's populated by talking animals, there are also regular animals, like there are pet dogs, wild bears and raccoons, and the sapient population still eats meat. Among the sapient animals there are families of the same species, but there are also interspecies couples (one prominent couple is a pig and an owl) though I don't recall if any of the interspecies couples have children. The world is never explained and honestly that works better for the story.

The art is also quite lovely like, it has watercolour softness of certain kinds of children's books about talking animals, but not hyperstylized cartoonyness that would be more the norm when a story is about the deliberate clash between its visual style and the gory subject material.

I definitely enjoyed the story overall, and I'm so glad it's a properly completed story, but it's a day later and I'm not thinking about it anymore, which is not what happens with stories I really like. So there's something missing somewhere, and I think it's because the story's pretty straightforward and what it says on the tin, and there's not as much digging into Sam's headspace as a serial killer and ( spoilers ) I think it just didn't go just slightly deeper/eerier, so the story doesn't haunt me as much as it could have, though I still enjoyed the read for what it is.

Current Mood: okay

jjhunter

The pearl at my ear is a lacquered grey seed
My lips strong red from wind's chaffing
I do not feel my middle age as any lessening
Here I am, a portrait of myself more vividly

Among old oaks I am still a hot young thing
Mind like a swallow sketching possibility on the wing
They say uncertainty ferments fear
I feel the old familiar thrill of stepping out of known into becoming

___

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

goodbyebird

+ Oh no I've pretty much eaten all my fancy chocolate :( I got a bag of random leftovers when I ordered a box for my mom for Christmas (Jentene På Tunet, BEST chocolate I've had in my life), and now there's only four pieces left. Rip.

+ I did pick up a packet of gf gnocchi yesterday, guess it's time for a very carb dinner :D

+ Decided to shuffle the list so I don't run out of femslash recs; today have a gen offering!

❄️ ❄️ ❄️ ❄️
Rec-cember Day 6

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Jewish Christmas by

ryfkah (632 words). Happy dancing whenever I find a cute holiday themed rec for this ;D
Ensconced in the supply closet, Jake told Amy, grimly, “Nutcracker Ballet.”

Amy gasped, her hands flying to her mouth.

“I thought it was bad when I caught her standing for 20 minutes staring at the tree in the front office --” Jake grabbed for Amy’s hands. “Babe, you gotta help me here. I am wildly unqualified to salvage Rosa’s Christmas. I have one single Christmas card to play, and while I’m obviously always happy to play that card --”

Amy winced, and shook her head. “You know Rosa still hasn’t forgiven Bruce Willis for A Good Day to Die Hard. Giving her a very Die Hard Christmas is just going to fill her with additional rage.”

scaramouche

I'm 38 episodes into 189 for Aryana and I'm so mad because the channel I had been watching the show on has been deleted! Not all is lost, because another official youtube channel uploaded the whole series a month ago (it's the same one that had the whole Raya Sirena series), BUT the old channel had (1) stats and comments accumulated over NINE years, so I could see which episodes were popular and read the comments that came with them, and (2) two-sentence episode summaries in English under the video, which had been SO helpful in letting me follow the show without having to audio translate everything, plus they were written well - succinct and not spoilery for any big twists in the episode.

It's just my luck that the rights transferred or whatever happened that the old channel was deleted while I was still making my way through the show. >:(

Storywise Aryana has hit her fourteenth birthday and we have finally reached the first full mermaid transformation. All the relatively mundane soap opera drama is presumably gonna take a bit of a hit as we now deal with Aryana and her family's freaking out, and I actually like that because the mundane stuff was annoying me. I'd last posted that I enjoyed Aryana's dynamic in her fancy school, but then the show upped Megan's bullying of her that even Bebet fell for Megan's propaganda and temporarily ditched Aryana, so we got multiple episodes of Aryana crying and being ostracized.

The third love interest boy still hasn't shown up yet either! I've been wishing he would because the Hubert vs. Marlon stuff has been agonizing, but in a soap opera way that I can't hate on. Hubert has confessed his feelings and got a positive response from Aryana, but that fell apart because Marlon knows that Hubert has another agenda about Aryana. Marlon is being very annoying about it, but he's not wrong! Hubert is suspicious! Is this why they added a third boy? I will be curious to see how that goes.

Current Mood: frustrated
Current Music: Boyz II Men - End of the Road

goodbyebird

+ I'm stuck waiting in the car at the mall, and I am SO HEAVILY SCENTED ugh. It was barely a dab! Rituals has made an enemy of me this day.

Plus side I've picked up a couple of Christmas presents, plus a half off face cream for myself.

If I hang my clothes up to dry when I get home and start the bedding, then empty the dishwasher? Not a whole day wasted, look at me go.

❄️ ❄️ ❄️ ❄️
Rec-cember Day 5

Xena for Fanart Friday =)
"Gabrielle, do it." by gabbiemara @ reddit. Delectable vampire piece.

badass feminist icons by

artbykristele. Fun portrait of Xena and Gabi in a fighting pose.

Good pals by

rennerei. Legs around waist! Smooches! Aiaiaiaiaiii

Stay Down by laurenknight @ bsky. Xena being in charge, and Callisto is more than happy about it. So fun!

If Xena got her hands on the Ixion stone by marylairre @ bsky. The concept, and the expression captured in this!

Current Location: the stupid parking lot
Current Music: Soccer Mommy - Yellow is the color of her eye

goodbyebird

+ Had vague plans of doing something useful today, but ended up playing an absurd amount of Crusader Kings 3 and the most recent update instead. CK3 having this reputation of being the murder incest simulator, meanwhile I spent two whole lives reading books, being beloved by all, and tending a garden. Zero intrigue until the game notified me I didn't have an heir and it would be game over... at which point my 57 year old chaste scholar dude was sent to slut his way across the kingdom. I died with eight legitimate heirs and several bastards lol.

After I've eaten I'll be setting off with my 22 year old, sitting on great stats and a pile of gold. By which I mean: studying and pilgrimages BOYAH. (I may not be the intended audience for this game? Or maybe that perception is warped by fun streamers? bc I want to write books and have a nice garden.)

+ Fingers crossed Pluribus drops before I get sleepy. It's really got a hold of me.

❄️ ❄️ ❄️ ❄️
Rec-cember Day 4

Gideon the Ninth
Skin Flick by

JeanLuciferGohard (2,618 words). Oh, this is pitch perfect in every way, and the visual language! So tasty.
Harrow undresses like somebody stripping an engine for parts, shedding layer after of black with a choppy, vindictive momentum. With all the eroticism of somebody prepping a taxidermy specimen. Like a case study of all possible conjugations of the verb “to flense”.

And, no, as it turns out; no, Harrowhark Nonagesimus is not, in fact, wearing anything under all that, nothing at all interrupting the faintly ridged shadow of her spine. There’s a lot of shoulder action happening, a lot of sweeping, shallow curves that look longer than they are, a lot of feral skinniness that you’d need a certain kind of palate to appreciate.

So call her a fucking sommelier, because Gideon’s palate is developed , apparently.

She whistles.

Current Music: Beatles

goodbyebird

+ Armored worms and death-ball sponges among array of life newly documented from the deep sea. Some really cool pictures here.

+ Unearthing The Hidden History Of A Singular Trans Punk Zine.

+ Scientists discover sperm whale ‘phonetic alphabet’.

+ Do you really know Art Nouveau?. A very interesting journey into the political side of Jugend.

❄️ ❄️ ❄️ ❄️
Rec-cember Day 3

Baldur's Gate 3
Karlach's Reviews by

ACrowsRockCollection (1k words). Boy oh boy do I love me a proper drabble, and this? Is ten quality drabbles in a row! Karlach ❤️❤️❤️
A hug:

Now, I want to be clear, that very first moment, where you're not sure, stick straight and skittery, that part sure isn't worth a damn.

But when ya melt into the person's arms?

And then, Gods, then they melt back? Because maybe they trust you or maybe you're just nice and warm, but the why don't exactly matter.

Because maybe when they melt back, maybe that's when you start thinking it is worth it all. Every bit of bullshit and all the gold in the gate too. For a moment, at least.

Five hundred million out of ten.

Oh, and

ManyATrueNerd started playing the game last month; he really has fun in the world and has gone in spoiler-free. If you’d like to follow a Let’s Play that drops an episode a week, you could do a whole lot worse.

Current Music: Bryony Claire - The moral panic of single women

goodbyebird

+ Lit my Christmas incense and drank some red soda today. It's pouring down outside but it still did the trick! Hopefully there's a dry morning soon so I can get some decorations out of the shed.

+ Many thanks for the lovely comments on the Holiday Love Meme, I was coming out of a bout of stomach flu combined with my period, and the tiny bumps of kindness throughout the days was highly appreciated ♥

+

BeautifulBooks does yearly videos on their favorite illustrated books, and is already out with their Myths & Legends and Children & Young At heart collections. If you're looking for bookish gifts this year - or just want to look at some art - might be a good one to check out.

❄️ ❄️ ❄️ ❄️
Rec-cember Day 2

Star Wars
Song for a fifth child by

Deputychairman (5978 words). A glimpse into Leia's life before and after the events of Force Awakens. Hands down my favorite Leia fic I've read so far.
Her daily life doesn’t change when Han dies.

He’d been gone for years, and she was used to that. He was there on a Comm link once a week, sometimes, and other times she wouldn’t hear from him for months, but she knew he was out there.

She feels the difference anyway. Like losing a tooth, or a bone in the ear - something from deep inside. It didn’t show, but you knew it was gone.

Current Mood: thankful
Current Location: Couch finally playing CK3
Current Music: Sevdaliza - Joanna

Profile

switchbladesis

October 2012

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31

Page Summary

goodbyebird - If you're devil, how come you're not wearing Prada?
goodbyebird - We make our own choices, we pay our own prices.
goodbyebird - (no subject)
goodbyebird - If gaslighting had a table of contents.
goodbyebird - Posting now in a futile attempt to stop reading IWTV fics so I have stuff for other days.
goodbyebird - To let you back in, that would be violence (I wanna try it).
goodbyebird - It's kind of ironic: the more care you put into a murder, the harsher society judges you.
goodbyebird - Will you be there when the flames are high?
goodbyebird - After I gave you the best 17 days of my life!
scaramouche - Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees
jjhunter - Poem: "Portrait of the Artist Feeling Liminal"
goodbyebird - Now I Know What A TV Dinner Feels Like.
scaramouche - Aryana (20.1% completed)
goodbyebird - Tried a perfume oil at Ritual and it was a Mistake.
goodbyebird - To be fair, the murder incest game also lets you find a pile of fluffy bunnies.
goodbyebird - Trying to close some non-fic related tabs for Reasons.
goodbyebird - hit me, take a deep breath.

Style Credit

Style: Pinstripe Suit, Blue Tie for Funky Circles by ninetydegrees

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Dec. 16th, 2025 03:03 am