#ringsofdragons

oooh yes this is a fun one. it's a time loop fic (a trope I love and still have not managed to finish an actual fic for) set during the mirador, which my little top-of-fic notes describes as "end of The Mirador timeloop fic where Felix keeps trying to save Gideon and failing in new and inventive ways"

I love a time loop fic that is basically "how many ways can this character fuck things up just as bad if not worse than canon? the answer may surprise you!" and that's kind of what's going on with this one. such an opportunity to make felix even more miserable than he is in canon! what fun.

sending you inspiration for 3x12 coda!

I am actually nearing the finish line, I just need to fill in the part I skipped in the middle and it should be all done! I'm aiming to have it done in the next hour, so here's hoping and here's 6 sentences for you (I'll count all the roses for such a nice message)

----

The captain tossed Owen an exasperated look but didn’t drop his professional tone as he turned his gaze back to the boys. “I’m going to recommend that you have someone check in on you later, at least,” he began, “and that if anything changes, you call another ambulance. Look out for—”

“Thanks, Captain Ambrose,” TK cut across, “I appreciate it, but I’m familiar with the symptoms.”

His voice was neutral but Owen’s heart ached all the same. He meant that more literally than the paramedic captain could possibly know, and Owen hated that he was here again.

so I just completely messed up my math and thought we were like actual children. and was like 'hmm, mid 30s early 40s should have their shit together, but maybe not' and then went back and have now properly done the math, and yeah. this sucks and I hope they get their shit together enough to at least stop trying to involve you

Well the landlord is currently using my room to grab things out of his office, Sooooooooooo I’m guessing not. 

I would love to hear some of your thoughts on any/all of them.

I know one of the things I find frustrating about her Witness for the Dead series is I thought it had similar themes to Doctrine of Labyrinths that I found more compelling in DoL (and my friends who have read Witness haven't read DoL...).

I read the other ones published under Sarah Monette years ago (the Iskryne Series beginning with A Companion to Wolves) but remember relatively little about it and have only met I think one other person who read it, back in a Livejournal RP group I was in between 2008-2012 or so.

I did also read The Goblin Emperor and seem to be in the minority of people I know in...not being particularly impressed with it? I enjoyed it...fine, but I've never felt compelled to reread it and it definitely didn't latch into my brain in the same way.

I suspect it has to do with the fact that The Goblin Emperor (I haven't read the sequels) was less interested, in my recollection, in specifically digging into really ugly, messy trauma the way that Doctrine of Labyrinths was. Not that it's not there, but one of the things that pulled me into DoL and keeps pulling me back is that ugliness and messiness - exemplified by Felix, I think, who is a protagonist who, I'd argue, would more likely be an antagonist in any other series. A sympathetic one! But nonetheless; it's certainly possible, as people have on the internet, to construct him as the villain in Mildmay's story.

They all turned to stare at him at the same time. “You’re making this up as you go along, aren’t you,” Valkyrie said, though she sounded more resigned than accusatory.

“Do you have any better suggestions?” Loki’s voice was caustic. “I have a plan. A loose one. That leaves us room to maneuver if anything...unexpected...comes up.”

Carol’s eyebrows were halfway up her forehead and she looked profoundly skeptical. “I’m starting to regret letting you take the lead on this,” she said.

Loki’s nostrils flared. “If something needs a photon blast to the face you shall be the first I inform. Until then, perhaps let someone with diplomatic training handle things?”

What was the last book you added to your tbr?

Had to check on this - it was The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski, because @sirjohnsmythe has talked me into reading the Witcher series.

List five OTPs.  

Just five? Oh man, okay. Let’s work with “things I reread recently” rather than “of all time,” how about that? and this is going to be really “wow Lise what the fuck are you” of me

Gabriel/Lymond APPARENTLY fuck me (but Lymond/Philippa = aces also)

Felix/Malkar

Felix / or & Mildmay (the relationship “gencest” is perfect for)

Mat/Tuon

Rand/Min

I actually read it way back when it was...still a bound manuscript, I think. I happened to be working at Tor when planning was starting for its release.

I admit I was...unimpressed. I wanted it to be better than it was. It felt like there were the seeds for a better book within what was there, but the better book wasn’t quite breaking through. The worldbuilding was good, but I found the characters especially pretty lackluster.

hahhahahh

oh god here’s where I say again I haven’t read much in a while, and all my librarian friends hate me. but lets see.

Honorable mention: Nightlight, a twilight parody book thats really funny and I’d read a lot when wanting to relax, and Temeraire, a great series I....need to finish. 

5. Writing Magic by Gail Carson Levine. I don’t think I ever really finished any of the exercises, but it was a lot of help for little me and getting into writing. 

4. Is everyone hanging out without me? by Mindy Kaling. I read this for a comedy class I took in my 1st year of college and it helped me decide I wanted to go into TV writing. 

3. Rhino with the Glue on Shoes, edited by Lucy Spelman and Ted Mashima. Its a collection of zoo vet stories, and as someone who wanted to be a zoo vet growing up, its one I came back to a lot over the years. 

2. Dark Moon Defender by Sharon Shinn. Ah! Finally some fantasy in here! its part of the Gillengaria series and probably the series as a WHOLE is one of my faves, (although not a fan of the 2nd one....) but the 3rd one is the best. 

1. Star Trek Deep Space Nine Companion. It may be cheating to put in a book thats about a TV show, but its another one that helped inspire me to want to be a tv writer and actually make shows like DS9

Gaming Stories. 

Burning Boat: For my first ever tryst as a DM, I used a set campaign. but the campaign was for like, 2.0, and we were playing 5.0, so, a lot of adjustments had to be made. the first half was supposed to be in an old house, the second half on a boat. Except they....burned....the boat.....They BURNED. The BOAT. They ENDED the CAMPAIGN and I had NOTHING.

Bob Ross: My 2nd character in Changeling the Lost was an old grandmotherly yarn doll named Nonna. Nonna liked to bake for her friends. Her friends gave her “special ingredients” for her brownies that she used. And thats how a group of college students spent their night PRETENDING to get high and watch Bob Ross.

Silent Cleric: My dad taught me how to play D&D with my mom, and he sets us against this evil....I think it was a Drow cleric, coming at us, riding a giant spider, and getting ready to throw down some nasty spells. So I cast silence on her clothes (they can’t be cast on people, just objects, and they have a radius around it). The cleric tries to run and my Ranger shoots her down in like, 2 rounds. Dad was grumpy.

Flying Bear of Doom: My dad had the great idea of doing a mock combat between my Mom’s characters and mine, so we had a battle of her wizard vs. my Ranger. The danger there being my mom’s wizard can change into a DAMN SILVER DRAGON. Luckily, I have a cloak to change into forest creatures. So, I’m hurting, and call for a hail mary. I transform into a bird and fly up as high as I can, then zoom down, flying at top speed. At the last second I transform into a bear. I die instantly on impact, of course. Mom survives with one damn hitpoint left.

Mango: This is a notorious story and will haunt me for years to come. 

Once upon a time, a young changeling GM had to get to another scene really quickly, but players stopped her. They had a question about the hedgefruit they had collected. the GM, not knowing much about hedgefruit, said, one for health, one for glamour and (not wanting them ALL to be positive) said “Don’t eat that one, it will kill you in one bite.

The naïve GM went on her way, and by the time game ended, had quite forgotten about the fruit. 

a few days later, the GM awakes to several messages, asking her to check the forums. A scene had been playing out between a pair of characters, one who knew of the fruit, and one who had not.

The first, A, was a sweet girl who for some reason put the fruit all down with the other, normal fruit. the second, B, had woken up early and went to cut up some fruit fo his housemates for breakfast. Sweet. Not realizing, of course, that he had started to slice up the Poisonous Mango.

A accidentally startled B, and B whipped around. B’s player thought it prudent to make a roll at this point as he was holding a sharp knife and whipping around with sharp objects is bad. unfortunately, in doing so, he sliced his finger. with the knife. that he had been slicing poisoned mangos with.  

That’s when they started messaging me.

Timidly I emailed the other GM’s, pointing to the forums and explaining the situation. They were able to say, yes, you clearly know nothing of either hedgefruit nor poisons. but they helped and B lost the finger.