aries_taurus

I figured that I'd group these together as they're by the same author. I wanted to talk about this anyway, because this is one of the more gratifying experiences I've had with leaving comments on older fic. Basically, I commented on a long WIP that hadn't been updated in several years, and the author not only wrote the rest of it but ALSO, to my delighted amazement, posted another long fic in the same universe, and started posting some new fanart too. It was wonderful. ♥ Never be afraid to comment even years later; sometimes you not only make someone's day but get lovely fanworks in return.

( 3 Londo/G'Kar Babylon 5 recs (by the same creator) cut for spoilers )

For reasons not worth exploring at this juncture (i.e. a friend asked which book to start with), I reread Jhereg earlier this week and then promptly tore through Yendi, Dragon, Taltos, quite a bit of Tsalmoth, and am now reading Issola. (Look, they're short books, okay.)

( Spoilers and speculation about Where It's All Going )

Continuing with the latest batch; also see previous post in case you missed anything.

9. Biggles/EvS forced to maintain close proximity by mad science

Responding to the prompt call with a Biggles prompt- Biggles and EvS are cursed or exposed to a mysterious mad-science substance that makes them have to maintain physical contact or very close proximity or else suffer increasingly debilitating pain &/ illness the farther they are apart- and now must work together in these constraints to fix this situation

Originally posted on Tumblr

( 900 wds under the cut )

10. Scotland Yard ladies gossiping about EvS

Biggles prompt! The Scotland Yard ladies chatter about that tall, dark & handsome foreign gentleman Mr. Boelke who comes round to Raymond's office once a month. Biggles is Extremely Normal about this.

Originally posted on Tumblr

( 500 wds under the cut )

11. Tied to a bed

Biggles prompt! There was only one (piece of furniture sturdy enough to tie a prisoner to and it was a) bed

Originally posted here

( 100 wds under the cut )

Jagged Little Slayer by periru3 and Tafadhali.
(Link goes to series page; see individual vids for content notes.)

This is an ambitious project to vid Buffy the Vampire Slayer to the entirety of Alanis Morissette's "Jagged Little Pill" album, one vid per song. A wide variety of pairings and characters are represented, and a lot of moods - dysfunctional and sad, uplifting and warm. I definitely have some favorites among these and some that weren't quite my thing (much like the songs on the album itself) but overall, it's an incredibly ambitious project, very nicely done, and there's probably something in here for almost every fan of the show. I didn't even realize I still had this much nostalgia for BtVS - it was one of those shows that I watched and enjoyed, but never really got into the fandom for - but wow, apparently I do, and this is a great tribute to all its ups and downs.

So this is for rec_cember, a month-long reccing event that I mentioned a couple of days ago! I don't currently know if there will be roundups or some other way to see what other people are reccing. Weekly check-in posts have been mentioned, but that's all I know about! Anyway, I signed up for daily reccing, so I'll see how long I can keep it up. I will also occasionally round these up over at recthething.

(BTW, as per the previous poll, there was enough interest in cutting Babylon 5 spoilers that I will do that, as well as anything else significantly spoilery in my recs for other fandoms.)

I'm starting off on easy mode and reccing a short Murderbot TV-verse fic I read the other day that I enjoyed!

Rubberducking by writingmonsters (Murderbot TV w/some book elements, Gurathin + Murderbot, gen, 979 wds)
Rubber duck debugging (or rubberducking): a debugging technique used in software engineering, wherein a programmer explains their code, step by step, in natural language—either aloud or in writing—to reveal mistakes and misunderstandings.

A cute little slice-of-life genfic in which Gurathin talks through a programming problem by using Murderbot's drone as a sounding board.

I read this book over the last couple of days on sheron's recommendation as bedtime reading, which backfired occasionally because I couldn't actually fall asleep due to needing to know what happened next. I had already read a couple of MacIntyre's WWII books back when I went through my phase of Read All The WWII Spy Things that I got into via Agent Carter, and I had bought this and a couple of other MacIntyre books at some point that I never read. Anyway, sheron has been reading this recently and sending me excerpts. Example:

In the West, of course, blood is donated by members of the public. The only payment is a cookie, and sometimes a cup of juice. The Kremlin, however, assuming that capitalism penetrated every aspect of Western life, believed that a “blood bank” was, in fact, a bank, where blood could be bought and sold. No one in the KGB outstations dared to draw attention to this elemental misunderstanding. In a craven and hierarchical organization, the only thing more dangerous than revealing your own ignorance is to draw attention to the stupidity of the boss.

So obviously I had to read this book.

This is the story of Oleg Gordievsky, KGB station chief and spy for the British, but it's also about the waning days of the Cold War in the late 1970s through the mid-80s. I found it fascinating on that level alone, because the world I grew up in (born in 1976) was obviously very heavily shaped by the events of this time period, but it would be a few years yet before I was old enough to pay attention to the news or politics. So it's truly fascinating to see this as a window into events that created the life-shaping politics I actually did follow as a teen and young adult. And it's also simply a fast-paced, engaging, very readable story of relatable people getting caught up in world events and life-threatening danger. If parts of this were a spy novel, it would be almost too fantastic to be believed.

( Spoilers for actual historical events, so not that spoilery )